Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The 6.2-km Hai Van Tunnel 2 – the longest road tunnel inSoutheast Asia, connecting the central province of Thua Thien-Hue and Da Nang city,is very near completion after the final section was excavated.

Nguyen TanDong, Vice Chairman of Deo Ca Joint Stock Company – the unit constructing thetunnel – said the project marked an important milestone in the nationaltransport sector because it was the longest road tunnel in Southeast Asia, withconstruction completed by Vietnamese workers.

“We aremobilising many teams to do three shifts all day and night to bring the projectto completion as scheduled by the end of 2020,” Dong said.

Constructionof the approaching road, linking Lang Co town in Thua Thien-Hue province to thetunnel, was 95 percent finished, he said.

For HaiVan Bridge, the contractor has already completed 23 of 26 girder bridges sofar, the online newspaper Zing reported.

Dong saidcompared to the plan, the construction was more than two months ahead ofschedule, so it was feasible that the tunnel would be put into operation by theend of 2020.

While theHai Van Road Tunnel 2 was officially put into operation, it was expected tohelp in reducing traffic pressure for the current Hai Van Road Tunnel 1. Itwould shorten travelling time for vehicles and improve the efficiency oftransporting goods and passengers, he said.

PhamThanh Ha, deputy director of the Hai Van Road Tunnel project management unit,said the unit had drawn experiences from the construction of Ca Pass, so, theprogress of construction of the tunnel was faster than scheduled.

Theproject of expanding Hai Van Road Tunnel was approved by the Ministry of Transportin 2016, including two stages with a total investment of more than 7.2 trillionVND (310 million USD). The first stage is to repair and upgrade the existing HaiVan Road Tunnel 1 and improve a section of National Highway No 1 runningthrough the Hai Van Pass.

Thesecond stage is to broaden a tunnel, which was used for the excavation, into atraffic tunnel – Hai Van Road Tunnel 2 – with four lanes and an approachingroad to the tunnel of the same scale. The entire route is set to be put intooperation by the end of 2020.

The HaiVan Road Tunnel 2, which is 6.2 km in length, built through a mountain, isdesigned with two sections for vehicles; each section is 9.7 metres in width.The north approaching road to the tunnel is about 1.7 km long and the southernapproaching road is 4 km./.