Long Bien Bridge is seriously degraded, the bridge surface has many cracks after many times of repair

03/06/2022 07:10 GMT+7

Long Bien Bridge belongs to the Hanoi – Dong Dang railway route with a length of 1691.15m. The bridge was built in 1899, completed and put into operation in 1902.

After 121 years of exploitation, use and destruction by war, the bridge has been restored, reinforced and repaired many times. Up to now, the bridge is no longer intact structurally as the original. Currently, the bridge has 13 French girder spans, the rest are other girder spans.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong, Technical Manager of Ha Hai Railway Joint Stock Company, the unit that manages, maintains and maintains Long Bien Bridge, informed that the unit had determined the initial cause of the punctured road surface.

“The incident was caused by the passing of a heavy-duty tricycle, plus the rainy weather for many days, which made the pavement structure weak. This incident is rare, the first time it happened,” said Phuong, and said the bridge patrol force detected and promptly remedied.

Image of Long Bien bridge was punctured at noon on May 28.

On the other hand, the design of Long Bien bridge does not have a pedestrian walkway, only to do more later. Moreover, the original road part is also mainly for cars to pass, so the steel system supporting the two wheels of the car is made firmly, attached to the bridge structure; Particularly the middle part is only L-shaped iron bars to support the woven sheet in the style of manhole cover because it is not subject to the main force. However, later, the number of motorbikes and carts crossing the bridge was too much, putting pressure on the woven panels in the middle, “breaking” the road surface.

Information from the Department of Transport Infrastructure, Ministry of Transport, Long Bien bridge still ensures the safe operation of trains and people’s travel in the context of difficulties in funding for upgrading and repairing.

Currently, the Ministry of Transport has asked the management units to immediately perform maintenance, patch potholes or have warnings so that people know the status of the bridge.

In the long run, it is necessary to thoroughly overcome the problem, Minh said, that the Ministry of Transport will give priority to providing more funds to repair damaged sections in the road section at Long Bien bridge. However. In the long term, there must be a plan and a plan to restore the overall Long Bien bridge.

In the 2022 plan, the Ministry of Transport will deploy the quality inspection package for the entire Long Bien bridge. After the inspection results are available, it is possible to propose a plan for the overall restoration of the seriously degraded Long Bien bridge.

For the repair and restoration of Long Bien Bridge in a comprehensive and comprehensive way, we need a huge budget. For example, the repainting of the entire Long Bien bridge also requires an expense of up to 70 billion VND. Currently, the maintenance and maintenance of Long Bien bridge is still using economic money from the railway industry with a trickle budget.

Long Bien Bridge is one of 7 arterial bridges spanning the Red River in Hanoi area, connecting Hoan Kiem and Long Bien districts.

Despite being repaired many times, but with its old age, Long Bien bridge still cannot avoid deterioration over time.

Just walking around the bridge, it is easy to see that many places on the bridge’s surface appear large holes, long cracks that can clearly see the water in the Red River bed, many broken walls. The bridge corridor, the way up and down are also degraded.

Many concrete slabs were damaged and were replaced with new ones.

The road surface on Long Bien bridge consists of cement concrete slabs on steel beams, the top layer is asphalted. However, the top layer of plastic frequently cracked along the woven panels, causing the pavement to be uneven.

Cargo trailers also cross the hundred-year-old bridge

It is known that in 2021, the maintenance cost of Long Bien bridge is 8.5 billion VND, in 2022 this cost will be more than 9.7 billion VND including the cost of railway bridge maintenance, the maintenance cost of the bridge. road and bridge funding, bridge protection.

In which, the proportion for materials is more than 1.3 billion, including railway and road. Funding for both sides of the road is just over 400 million VND, of which direct materials are about 250 million VND for railings, woven panels…

Mr. Le Hoang Minh, Director of the Department of Transport Infrastructure under the Ministry of Transport said: “With such a small budget, it is very difficult for the overall maintenance and restoration of Long Bien Bridge in its state of bridge. been exploited for more than 120 years, so degraded. When it is necessary to replace and repair urgently, we have to spend money in places that are not urgent for places that directly affect safety.”

Currently, the bridge deck is seriously degraded.

A representative of the Vietnam Railways Corporation said that with Long Bien bridge, there are not only road traffic problems but also water traffic safety issues. The bridge piers are currently weak, if water vehicles collide, the risk of railway and road safety is very high.

Vietnam Railways Corporation is carrying out the overall inspection of the bridge before proposing long-term solutions, including establishing a synchronous repair project and development investment capital.

Many roads are temporarily patched

The steel frames, the structure of the bridge rusted over time.

Rusty exposed steel structure

The bridge deck is perforated looking down at the river bed

Every day, the bridge still flexes its back to carry trains and crowded traffic.

Bao Khanh