Cần Thơ Bridge (), is a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

over the Hậu ( Bassac) River, the largest

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel is a stream channel that branches off and flows a main stream channel. It is the opposite of a ''tributary'', a stream that flows another stream or river. Distributaries are a result of river bifurc ...

of the

Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth-longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third-longest in Asia with an estimated l ...

, in the city of

Cần Thơ Cần Thơ () is the List of cities in Vietnam, fourth-largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city along the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam. It is noted for its floating markets, rice paper-making village, and picturesque rural canals. It has ...

in southern

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The bridge is 2.75 kilometres long (1.68 miles). It has a 6-lane

carriageway A carriageway (British English) or roadway (North American English) is a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A carriageway generally consists of a number of traffic lane ...

measuring 23 metres (76 feet) in width, with 4 lanes for automobile traffic and two lanes for bicycles and motorbikes. It has a clearance of 39 metres (128 feet), which allows large ships to pass underneath it. The bridge was inaugurated on April 24, 2010.

Construction

Prime Minister

Phan Văn Khải Phan Văn Khải (; 25 December 1933 – 17 March 2018) was a Vietnamese politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Vietnam from 25 September 1997 until his resignation on 27 June 2006. He was considered to be a technocratic, innovat ...

launched construction of the bridge on September 25, 2004, which was scheduled to be completed in late 2008. The collapse of the partially built bridge in 2007 delayed its opening. The bridge is one of seventeen bridges planned to integrate the

Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( or simply ), also known as the Western Region () or South-western region (), is the list of regions of Vietnam, region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong, Mekong River River delta, approaches and empties into the sea th ...

into the road network of Vietnam by 2020. The bridge replaced the network of ferries on the National Route 1 linking

Vĩnh Long Province Vĩnh Long () is a province located in the Mekong Delta of southwestern Vietnam. Its capital is Vĩnh Long. Its population is 1,046,390 and its area is . Vĩnh Long (spelled 永隆 in the former Hán-Nôm writing system) is a Sino-Vietnamese na ...

on the east shore with Cần Thơ city on the westbank. The construction of the bridge was supervised by the consultant group Nippon Koei-Chodai and contracted to several Japanese contractors:

Taisei Corporation is a Japanese corporation founded in 1873. Its main areas of business are building construction, civil engineering, and real estate development. Taisei's headquarters are located at Shinjuku Center Building in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo. ...

Kajima Construction is one of the oldest and largest construction companies in Japan. Founded in 1840, the company has its headquarters in Motoakasaka, Minato, Tokyo. The company is known for its DIB-200 proposal. The company stock is traded on four leading Japa ...

and

Nippon Steel (previously known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal until 2019) is Japan's largest steelmaker, headquartered in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company has four business segments, which are steelmaking, engineering, chemicals, and systems solu ...

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

for the project was funded by the

Japan International Cooperation Agency The Japan International Cooperation Agency (), also known as JICA'','' is a governmental agency that delivers the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social gr ...

with

official development assistance Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is w ...

loan from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation and the Vietnamese government. Cần Thơ Bridge is insured by the Petrolimex Joint Stock Insurance Company and PetroVietnam Insurance Company for 3.2 trillion Vietnamese đồng (200 million U.S. dollars). The construction of the Cần Thơ Bridge was subdivided into three contracts, with one contractor handling the first approach bridge, the second building the main bridge, and the third constructing the southern approach road into Cần Thơ.

Collapse

A 90-meter approach ramp of the Cần Thơ Bridge collapsed during construction, on the morning of September 26, 2007, falling from 30 meters in the air. The collapsed section was above a small island located on the Vĩnh Long side of the bridge. There were 250 engineers and workers working on and under the span at the time; the official death toll is 54, with 80 severe injuries. According to Dr. Trần Chủng, head of the national construction QA/QC authority under the Ministry of Construction, this is the most catastrophic disaster in the history of Vietnam's construction industry.

Rescue efforts

Immediately following the accident, many workers at the site joined the rescue forces to take the injured out of the debris, and Chợ Rẫy Hospital in

Hồ Chí Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

sent two professional rescue teams to the site. Local people, students, and cadres joined the rescue teams. International agencies contributed rescue personnel and funding. Rescue efforts were carried out with cranes rather than by direct rescue personnel because of the risk of collapse of the remaining part of the bridge.

Aftermath

An inquiry into the cause of the collapse spent 8 months investigating. Initially, it was discovered that the temporary pillars that had given out had been under-specified, using narrower margins to save costs. Ultimately, the proximate cause was determined to be building the temporary pillars partially on soft sand, which settled unevenly and caused the pillar to tilt. In 2009, the Vietnamese government banned the Taisei and

companies from operating in Vietnam for one year, blaming the two Japanese companies for failing to secure the bridge support.

Opening

The largest bridge in the region, was completed on April 12 and opened for traffic on April 24, 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Can Tho Bridge Road bridges in Vietnam Cable-stayed bridges in Vietnam Bridges completed in 2010 Bassac River Buildings and structures in Cần Thơ Japan International Cooperation Agency Japan–Vietnam relations