Commuters remove road barricades to pass construction site

The barricades placed at the two ends of the Dong-Tay Road in Buon Ma Thuot City were removed by people to make way for motorbikes and cars. In just under an hour, hundreds of cars and motorbikes managed to bypass multiple barricades and enter the road that is still under construction.

Nguyen Quang Lam, 54, said he had urgent businesses so he wanted to use the Dong-Tay Road to get to downtown faster, because other roads were further away and more crowded.

“Many roads have been completed for a long time, and are wide and spacious. Not making use of them is a waste,” he said.

 

 

Commuters remove road barricades to pass construction site

Người dân phá rào chắn đi vào đường Đông – Tây TP Buôn Ma Thuột

The Dong-Tay Road project, spanning 6.9 km, had a total investment cost at over VND1.2 trillion ($50.7 million) when it first began construction in 2015. One end of the road is the Le Duan-Dinh Tien Hoang intersection, while the other end is an intersection between National Highway 27 and the road leading to the Buon Ma Thuot Airport.

The project is now 96% completed, with some infrastructure items like sidewalks and electrical systems still incomplete. It is expected to be finished at the end of the year.

As the road intersects with many other important routes, people have begun entering the incomplete road for quicker travels. Several accidents have occurred on such new roads in recent times, causing at least five deaths.

A representative of project contractor 515 Investment and Construction Company said the firm had erected warning signs and other barricades to prevent vehicles from using the road, following a request from the Buon Ma Thuot People’s Committee.

The company has also deployed security personnel to prevent people from trespassing on the road. It had planned to place cement blocks at both ends of the road, but as the blocks would have also impeded vehicles used for construction of the project, the plan was put on hold.