Removing temporary and weak bridges: Effectiveness from the mechanism of the State and the people working together

– With the support from the State and the effort of the people themselves, the State invests while the people join hands, the movement to harden the bridge for people’s living, remove temporary and weak bridges in the province in recent years has achieved positive results, contributing to strengthening the essential transport infrastructure in rural areas.

Lang Son is a mountainous province with complex topography, steep hills and rather dense rivers. This makes the need to build essential infrastructure system such as roads, bridges and sewers in the province high. According to statistics from the Department of Transport, at the beginning of 2015, the province had 668 bridges for civil purpose, of which 346 temporary bridges and 56 weak bridges need to be built.

In order to remove temporary and weak bridges, in the period of 2016 – 2021, the Department of Transport has advised the Provincial People’s Committee many solutions to mobilize maximum resources to remove temporary and weak bridges for safe travel of the people. One of the solutions is the combination of the materials and techniques from the State and effort from the people, the State invests while the people join hands … The people agree with this solution, support and spread it in the community.

Binh Gia is the district with the largest number of bridges in need of hardening in the province with 154 temporary bridges and 2 weak bridges in 18 communes in the area. According to the statistics of the District Economic and Infrastructure Division, from 2016 to June 2021, the whole district has hardened 125 over 156 temporary and weak bridges in 18 communes with a total value of 2.5 billion VND. (about 20 million VND/bridge on average). In which, the people contribute to 50% of the construction value.

The bridge for civil purpose in Tat Lung hamlet, Lung Phuc village, Tri Le commune, Van Quan district was built to replace the temporary low bridge

Mr. Mo Van Loi, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hoang Van Thu Commune said: “From 2016, when there is a policy of the State to support materials of cement, iron and steel, people build the bridge themselves, the movement of temporary bridge hardening of the commune has spread rapidly. After more than 5 years of implementation, all 11 temporary bridges of the commune have been hardened by reinforced cement concrete, the bridge is from 2.5 m to 3 m wide. To build the bridge, people have donated 80 million VND in cash, contributed 3,000 working days and donated 150 m2 of land to build the road.”

In addition to Binh Gia, Van Quan is also a district with a strong movement to harden the bridges for civil purpose. According to statistics, Van Quan has 92 bridges for civil purpose, of which 39 are temporary bridges that need to be hardened in 17 communes. From 2016 to June 2021, the whole district has hardened 21 over 39 temporary bridge in 11 communes with the implementation value of 794 million VND. In which, the State supported materials worth 366 million VND, the people contributed 428 million VND in cash.

Mr. Phung Van Hoang, Lung Phuc hamlet, Tri Le commune, Van Quan district said: “Tat Lung hamlet, Lung Phuc village has 17 households, but their traveling is difficult due to Tat Lung stream. Previously, people in the village made a temporary low bridge for travel, but in the rainy season, they were still divided due to high water. In 2020, the households in the hamlet contributed 30 million VND to buy sand and gravel, along with the support of the State in cement, iron and steel, Tat Lung hamlet has hardened the bridge over the stream with a length of 10 m by reinforced concrete.”

According to statistics, with the support from the State and the effort of the people themselves, from 2016 to the end of June 2021, 8 districts include Cao Loc; Binh Gia, Van Lang, Huu Lung, Van Quan, Loc Binh, Dinh Lap and Chi Lang have hardened 262 bridges for civil purpose, with a construction value of about 8 billion VND.

Mr. Tran Van Vuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport said: “In the past 5 years, the Department has focused on advising the Provincial People’s Committee to allocate resources to the districts to support them with materials such as cement, steel or iron for hardening temporary bridge according to the combination of the support from the State and the effort of the people themselves. In addition, the Department focused on mobilizing ODA capital to effectively implement the project of building bridges for civil purpose and managing local road assets (Lramp project) to remove temporary and weak bridges. As a result, the whole province has removed 325 temporary and weak bridges, worth over 200 billion VND.

However, at present, the need to harden temporary bridges to replace weak bridges in the province is still high. Currently, the Department of Transport is coordinating with relevant sectors, districts and city to review and assess the current status of existing temporary and weak bridges. Thereby, it would advise the Provincial People’s Committee to have an investment support mechanism as well as to develop an estimate to maintain the bridges for civil purpose that have been invested for implementation in the 2021-2025 period in order to contribute to promoting socio-economic development in rural areas.