An Expressway Development Strategy for Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam's rapid economic growth
 continues to create new demands for transport infrastructure
 and services. Bottlenecks to business activities caused by
 infrastructure constraints are already appearing in several
 areas. High rates of urbanization, rising traffic accidents,
 new capacity constraints, and a large increase in asset
 preservation requirements to meet the fast expansion of
 transport assets presents further challenges to the sector.
 To address these infrastructure bottlenecks, and to
 gradually remove the transport constraints on industry,
 Vietnam is embarking on an ambitious expressway development
 program. To date the transport sector has facilitated this
 growth principally through the rehabilitation and widening
 of existing arterial roads. The national road network has
 expanded to 17,000 km, the overall condition has improved
 with 66 percent of the network being in good and fair
 condition and 84 percent of the network is now paved. If
 traffic growth rates continue at their current rate these
 constraints could adversely impact future economic
 development. The successful development of an expressway
 system is a significant physical and financial commitment
 which will require a number of changes to laws, regulations,
 institutions and operations of the network.