Why does the Hanoi-Hai Phong high-speed fiber cable constantly break, crippling toll collection without stopping?

The incident of fiber optic cable breakage, which paralyzed the non-stop toll collection system on the Hanoi-Hai Phong highway on April 24, was the third time in recent times.

Three breaks and will it still happen?

Regarding the Hanoi-Hai Phong expressway, the fiber optic cable broke on April 24, making it impossible to collect automatic non-stop tolls (ETCs), causing prolonged congestion, the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam on April 25 had Directive document to review the entire fiber optic cable system of this expressway.

According to Vietnam Expressway Development and Investment Corporation (Vidifi), this is an internal fiber optic cable line invested by Vidifi to transmit data between toll stations to calculate the driver’s fee for using ETC services. .

The optical cable is broken, so data from tollgates cannot be transmitted to the operating center of the Hanoi – Hai Phong expressway, and cannot be connected to the processing system of the ETC toll service provider. The ETC lane of the toll booths is closed, only the paper card distribution lane is open for vehicles entering – leaving the expressway.

ETC toll collection paralysis due to fiber optic cable termination, so each driver is given a paper card at the input to pay at the output.

The fiber optic cable cut caused a prolonged congestion on the Hanoi-Hai Phong highway on the way from Hai Phong to Hanoi, so many drivers complained that they had to wait in long lines to pass the toll station to pay. At about 3pm on the same day, the fiber optic cable route was resumed, and ETC and MTC toll collection returned to normal.

Explaining more about the prolonged congestion, Vidifi’s representative said, part of the reason is that the traffic on the Hanoi – Hai Phong highway on April 24 increased sharply compared to the previous days.

Specifically, the average daily vehicle traffic on the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway reached about 37,000-38,000 vehicles/day and night, but on April 24, this number reached over 50,000 vehicles.

Vehicles lined up for a kilometer in front of the toll booth but still could not discharge the station to relieve congestion

Worth mentioning, this is not the first time that the expressway, which is considered the most modern in Vietnam, has had a broken fiber optic cable, unable to collect ETC tolls. Recently, this highway has also broken fiber optic cable twice and on April 24, it was the third time. However, the previous two times the traffic was not large and the recovery time was faster.

Explaining why the fiber optic line had a floating section that led to the lawn mower accidentally cutting it, the Vidifi representative said that this was an incident that Vidifi itself did not want to happen. “The fiber optic cable route goes underground, but there are intersections with bridges and culverts, so it has to be floating,” explained Vidifi representative.

Do not discharge the station because the traffic jam is still within reach

To overcome this situation, Vidifi has a plan to add a backup fiber optic cable and a wireless transmission line for the ETC system to operate smoothly when this highway only charges non-stop tolls from the beginning of June.

In addition to the optical cable system, Vidif will strengthen and supplement investment in the 4G network system so that the toll collection system is not interrupted. This is also a rehearsal for Vidifi to do a good job of collecting fees during the upcoming holidays of April 30 and May 1, and only collect fees non-stop in June.

In response to the question of why on April 24, when a fiber optic cable failure occurred, causing prolonged congestion, but Vidifi did not discharge the station, a Vidifi representative said that the incident in the ETC lane had an impact on the traffic manual toll lane 1 stop. Although there was a traffic jam, it wasn’t hard, but the vehicles were still moving slowly and Vidifi could still handle it.

“On the expressway, there are 32 toll lanes, but only 16 lanes have been opened. Thus, it seems that we have not yet surpassed our service capacity “- Vidifi representative expressed.

To Nam Toan, Director of the Department of Science, Technology, Environment and International Cooperation, said that the General Department has directed Vidifi to review the technical status of the above equipments, said To Nam Toan, Director of the Department of Science, Technology, Environment and International Cooperation. routes and redundancy options such as arranging additional backup fiber optic cables, maintaining 3 connection lines (1 wireless line) to ensure system continuity.

“In order to prepare for the Hanoi – Hai Phong expressway to automatically collect tolls without stopping in June, the General Department has built up possible scenarios and assigned responsibility for handling each stage. ensure to minimize errors”, Mr. Toan said.

According to Mr. Toan, the previous two incidents of fiber optic cable breakage at this expressway were caused by the construction of connecting provincial roads to the highway.