Busy expressway to Vietnam's largest airport Long Thanh widened to 12 lanes

More than a year into construction, many sections of the expressway linking Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh airport are being widened to 10-12 lanes, with bridges and major interchanges taking shape.

The interchanges with National Highway 51 and the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway on the HCMC-Long Thanh Expressway are taking shape. The two are key traffic hubs linking Long Thanh airport to the road network of Vietnam's southeastern region.

The project to widen the HCMC-Long Thanh Expressway is about 81% complete after more than a year of work and is entering its final push to be largely finished this year.

The roughly 22-km project, which broke ground in August 2025 with a total investment of more than VND16.3 trillion (US$634 million), runs from the Ring Road 2 interchange in HCMC to the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway in Dong Nai.

Once complete, it will improve connections between central HCMC and Long Thanh airport, which is expected to begin operating at the end of this year.

At the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway interchange, contractors have largely finished compacting the roadbed and are preparing to lay asphalt on the section being widened to 10-12 lanes.

A viaduct of about 300 m running parallel to the existing HCMC-Long Thanh Expressway has most of its girders in place and is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

About 2 km away, at the expressway's interchange with National Highway 51, contractors have finished installing the bridge girders and are building the deck and approach roads ahead of asphalt paving.

Over the Dong Nai River, a line of Long Thanh 2 Bridge piers has risen alongside the existing bridge. The spans of the main bridge are scheduled to be joined at the end of this year, with completion in the first quarter of 2027.

On the widened sections through Long Thanh and Nhon Trach wards in Dong Nai, contractors are laying the crushed-stone base course and paving the road surface with asphalt.

Work is also under way simultaneously in HCMC. The section through Long Truong Ward is being widened on both sides to 10 lanes.

At the interchange with Ring Road 3, contractors have installed girders on most of the piers, and some connecting approach roads are largely complete.

The interchange is a key junction at HCMC's eastern gateway. Once Ring Road 3 and the expressway expansion are complete, it will improve links to Long Thanh airport and the southeastern provinces while reducing the number of vehicles entering the city center.

Spanning 5,000 hectares in Dong Nai, about 40 km from HCMC, Long Thanh is Vietnam’s largest airport by area, scheduled to start operation this December.

Its first phase covers 1,810 hectares and is designed to handle 25 million passengers a year, rising to 100 million once all four runways and four terminals are built.