VIENTIANE: Vietnam broke ground on May 18 on a 60-kilometre expressway costing 23.94 trillion dong (US$910 million) to the Lao border, advancing a long-planned highway corridor between the two countries, according to the Embassy of the Lao PDR in Hanoi.
For Laos, South-East Asia’s only landlocked country, the corridor promises a faster overland link to Vietnamese seaports.
For Vietnam, it deepens trade, tourism and logistics ties with Laos and, beyond it, Thailand, as part of a broader east-west economic corridor.
The Vietnamese leg of the corridor runs for about 370km, roughly 310 of which overlaps the existing North-South expressway.
The expressway starts at the Hung Tay interchange in Nghe An province, linking to the Dien Chau-Bai Vot section of the eastern North-South expressway, and ends at the Thanh Thuy-Nam border crossing with Laos.
The expressway will have six lanes, with four full lanes built in the first phase, while bridges and the section passing through the most difficult terrain will be constructed to the six-lane standard.
Vehicles will travel at speeds of 100 to 120 kph on the main sections and 60 to 80 kph through areas of more challenging terrain. - Vientiane Times/ANN
