The management board of a highway project and two Japanese contractors will have to bear responsibility for several cracks found in the tunnel sections built for a tunnel project in Ho Chi Minh City, a Construction Ministry official said Tuesday.

A number of cracks have been discovered in four tunnel sections pre-constructed for the Thu Thiem Tunnel project, part of the larger East-West Highway project linking HCMC’s District 1 to District 2.

The four sections, which were built in neighboring Dong Nai Province but haven’t been transported to HCMC, had developed a series of cracks even before their completion in June.

Speaking with Thanh Nien Tuesday, Head of the Construction Ministry’s Department of Construction Works Quality Appraisal Le Quang Hung said the management board of the East-West Highway and HCMC water environment project would be held accountable for the cracks based on its investor status.

The package’s contractor, Japanese Obayashi Corporation, and its design consultant, Pacific Consultants International (PCI), would have to bear responsibility as well, Hung said.

The specific responsibilities of the Vietnamese investor and the two Japanese contractors would be clarified once the State Inspection Committee for Construction Projects (SICCP) ascertained the cause of the cracks, Hung said.

But he didn’t reveal a timeframe for announcing inspection results, only mentioning that agencies concerned were scrambling to wrap up investigative matters.

Hung also dispelled allegations that construction materials had been skimmed in the building process, instead attributing the cracks to technical errors.

“The cracks can be fixed and the two sides aren’t considering rebuilding the tunnel sections from scratch,” Hung said.

Hung also assured the cracks would not make much of an impact on the construction progress of the Thu Thiem Tunnel.

Nguyen Viet Trung, head of SICCP’s team of experts, concurred with Hung, saying the cracks are not too serious to repair.

But he noted the engineering laboratory managed by Japanese Obayashi Corporation on site had failed to meet standards required by the Construction Ministry at the time when SICCP inspected the tunnel construction site last year.

Hung said Tuesday the Japanese contractor has yet to obtain a standard certificate for its engineering lab.

Several cracks, with dimensions of one-millimeter wide and two to three meters long, far exceed the criteria previously outlined by Obayashi Corporation.

Bulging cracks

Several informal sources among former and current workers of the project have told Thanh Nien some current tunnel cracks at the construction site in Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach District have continued to widen.

The foundation has also sunk and shows no sign of improving, said the sources, who asked to remain anonymous.

Last November, SICCP warned that fissures had appeared in all four tunnel sections and recommended repairing the cracks.

Inspectors said the cracks have absorbed rainwater, which would weaken the loading capacity and stability of the whole tunnel structure.

Obayashi and PCI have been at odds with one another regarding proposals to fix the cracks.

The Thu Thiem Tunnel will be 1.5 kilometers long, with a 371-meter section running under the Saigon River.

It is set to open by June next year and become Southeast Asia’s longest river tunnel.

The blame game again......

Cái này đ/c ta muốn chơi lại tụi Nhật đây mà...... Chưa chi các đ/c đã disclaim là lỗi không phải tại ăn cắp vật liệu xây dựng đâu nhé, phản động tụi nó có cười thì.........hở mười cái răng!!!

It is supervised by the contractor Japan, not any PMU