CONTRACTORS “DEPLOYING TROOPS” IN PROGRESS ACCELERATION OF LONG THANH AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

The Long Thanh airport project started on January 5, 2021, was invested by Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV). The project’s first phase has an area of ​​5,000 hectares, a total investment of more than VND109,000 billion, and is expected to reach level 4F of an international airport, including: one runway, 1 passenger terminal and synchronous auxiliary works.
The joint venture of contractors Truong Son - Vinaconex - ACC - Cienco 8 - Phuc Loc - Consultant is in charge of construction of package 3.4, which includes construction items of ground leveling and drainage works with a value of VND4,411.62 billion.

In the sweltering heat and the red soil dust blowing in the wind of the upcoming 2023 spring, witnessing with our own eyes the construction process of package 3.4 of the Long Thanh airport project, in Binh Son commune, Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province made us "overwhelmed" by the immensity of the great project.
Following Huong Lo 10 street, Binh Son commune, Long Thanh district, and Dong Nai province, we had to slow down to reach the headquarters of the Project Management Board located in the center of the Long Thanh airport project since the dense red dust obscured our views.
Here, Mr. Hai, an officer of the Project Management Board, shook our hands: “The construction site is very dusty due to red soil. Those who rarely go to the project would be confused and not know the way, because the vast project changes every hour, everyday”.

Mr. Hai guided us to strategic locations where constructors were executing the construction. The project was indeed vast that we had to go through muddy, dusty roads covering and reducing our vision to only about 5 meters. It was likely to have a collision if we were not careful or didn’t know the route well.
As we arrived at the spot where employees workers were driving bulldozers, and rollers for ground filling, Mr. Dien Minh Hoa, the Vinaconex contractor's roller driver, swiftly wiped the sweat on his forehead and burst into laughter, saying “That's what a traffic worker is”.
 

“It rained yesterday, so today's weather is less harsh, the road’s less dusty. Normally, you guys can't stand outside for long in such wind and dust.” Mr. Hoa sat on a roller and quickly drank some water. With the skin burnt and the back drenched with sweat, he got out of the road roller then shared his thought: “The vast project looks like a desolate place that sometimes I think I can't stand here.”

“The workers took turns going home for Tet holidays, but still retained the construction progress during the Lunar New Year. We were divided into 3 shifts to alternately work and eat on site,” said Mr. Tran Van Tien, a mechanic of Vinaconex contractor holding up a dusty water bottle to drink.

"With the goal of completing the project early, we eat and sleep at the work site every day to be more effective, because the project is so vast huge that moving takes much time as long as we’re afraid of getting lost,” Tien explained. Pointing to the lunch box, he said in a warm voice: “We're used to the construction meals. Eating at the construction site suddenly became a familiar habit to the workers in the red land.”

With a white hard hat, a muddy shirt and a sweaty face, Mr. Vu Manh Linh, a Vinaconex contractor engineer told the Dan Viet reporter that he and many employees had stayed on the construction site and celebrated Tet there, executed overnight and accelerated the progress of construction. He stated in the joyful atmosphere of the first days of Lunar New Year mixed with the wind and sound of machines at the site: “Right at the construction site, we wrapped Chung cakes and did pig slaughter to welcome New Year's Eve.”

Vinaconex’s representative said that the constructor had been deploying over 600 specialized vehicles & machinery, 735 workers and engineers to routinely perform in three shifts taking advantage of favorable weather and 24-hour overtime to accelerate project’s progress. According to this representative, in the package no. 3.4, the joint venture has been excavating and backfilling 115.00 million m3 of dirt, of which Vinaconex accounts for nearly 30% of the volume implemented. Vinaconex has so far completed 15.40/28.15 million m3, equivalent to 54.7% of the workload.
Continuing to move, we witnessed the machines aggressively deployed in mass for bulldozing and ground filling. Here, the image of Mr. Nguyen Van Manh - Truong Son contractor's worker hastily wiping the sweat on his face with his hands smeared with dirt and engine oil while sitting on the hot red ground in the outfit of “Uncle Ho's soldiers” left a strong impression on us. As we looked at him in admiration, he said: “I grab my moments to take a sip of water…”.

When being asked whether he could overcome the obstacles to complete the tasks, Mr. Manh strongly responded: “Upholding the quality of “Uncle Ho's Soldiers”, we are determined to do our tasks, encouraging each other to overcome difficulties, overcome the sun and wind, and implementing construction during Tet upon the leaders’ requirement.” 

Stepping down from the road roller at the construction site, Mr. Vo Thanh Phong, Executive Director of package no. 3.4 shared with us: “What you see is only part of our obstacles.”
Pointing to workers who were putting up signs in the middle of the dust, he said: “We have to use various symbols to distinguish the areas of ​​contractors, identify areas under construction as well.”
“Contractors would be determined to do excavating and backfilling with a total product of over 12 million m3, more than 260,000 m3/day on average”, said Mr. Phong while pointing to the fleet of road rollers.

According to Mr. Binh, the Long Thanh airport project is expected to be an important national airport, aiming to be one of the international air transit center of the region. It is expected that the project would be complete by the end of 2025, particularly it would be put into operation on September 2, 2025 as commitmance of ACV to the Government. “Construction progress is a huge challenge for us.”, he said.

Mr. Binh informed the component project no. 3 (construction of essential works in the airport, including passenger terminal, aviation infrastructure, systems of water supply, wastewater treatment; cargo terminal no.1, parking areas; the traffic system connecting lines 1 and 2, etc.) has complete bidding packages, such as mine clearance, construction of fences, ground filling, drainage and foundation piles of passenger terminals.

Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee stated that regarding Long Thanh airport phase 1, more than 97% of the land in the 2,532ha area has been handed over to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) so far.
Ground leveling and foundation piles for the station are currently being built on the construction site, with a focus on construction of runways, taxiways, aprons, and places for the component projects.