Construction work on Can Tho Bridge resumed on Monday after an 11-month suspension following an accident that killed 54 people and injured 80 others last September.

The Japanese contractors, a joint venture of Taisei Corporation, Kajima Construction and Nippon Steel (TKN), resumed construction of the main span of the bridge, called Package No. 2, by building temporary poles from Pole No. 13 to Pole No. 15. Construction began again after the Minister for Construction and head of the Slate Investigation Committee for Can Tho Bridge Collapse, Nguyen Hong Quan, met with concerned parties to discuss resumption of the work.

Part of the bridge collapsed on September 26 because of the sinking of a temporary pole at the construction site.

Quan was quoted by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper as saying that TKN had completed a new design for the temporary pole system to ensure safety.

The supervisor and consultant Nippon Koei-Chodai. as well as the Japanese contractors TKN, have sent new managers from Japan to replace the previous ones at Can Tho Bridge.

Can Tho Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that will span the Hau (Posterior Mekong) River, the largest distributary of the Mekong River.

The 15.85 km bridge, located some 170 km south of HCM City, is expected to replace the ferry system that currently runs along National Road 1A to link Binh Minh District in Vinh Long Province with Can Tho City in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.

Construction of Can Tho Bridge began on September 25, 2004 and was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

The project costs VND4.832 billion (US$295 million). Capital for the project came from concessional loans provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Vietnamese Government's counter capital.

Source: Vietnam News