Currently, Terminal 1 of the Long Thanh International Airport project (phase I) is being constructed by units, the first bidding package has 1,545 foundation piles. What is extremely unfortunate at this stage is that the underground railway station is not included in the design, and once the foundation piles have been installed, of course it will not be possible to combine the construction of an underground railway station.
[Units are urgently implementing the construction of phase I of the Long Thanh International Airport project.]
However, better late than never, in the next stage, the investor can still completely “correct mistakes”, promptly supplementing the underground station design at Terminal 2 to ensure continuous connection. In construction, design must always be one step ahead, so this needs to be decided early and the task immediately assigned to the Design Consulting Joint Venture.
National key project
Long Thanh International Airport (Long Thanh district, Dong Nai) has an area of 5,000 hectares, located in 6 communes of Long Thanh district, close to the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay highway. The project has a total estimated investment of more than 330 trillion VND (equivalent to about 16 billion USD), divided into 3 phases. When the investment is complete, the total project design capacity will reach 100 million passengers/year and 5 million tons of goods/year.
In which, phase I, invest in 1 runway, 1 passenger terminal, auxiliary items, capacity of 25 million passengers/year, cargo terminal with 1.2 million tons of goods/year. The station is designed in a stylized lotus shape, including 1 ground floor and 3 floors, with a total floor area of nearly 376,500 square meters; roof peak height 45.55m; Arrange 40 close parking positions for aircraft. According to the request of the National Assembly, by 2025 at the latest, phase 1 items must be completed and put into operation.
[The Passenger Terminal No. 1 project at Long Thanh airport is being urgently deployed.]
Phase I – Long Thanh International Airport has a total investment of more than 109,111 billion VND (equivalent to more than 4.6 billion USD), divided into 4 component projects. In particular, project component 3 includes essential works for the airport that have the most important significance and the largest investment capital, deciding to put the airport into operation. This component project has a total capital of more than 99 trillion VND, invested by Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV).
Long Thanh Airport Design Consulting Joint Venture includes: Heerim (Korea) in charge of the overall architectural plan, Arup (UK) designing the terminal body structure, Aurecon (Australia) designing the electromechanical system , ADPi (France) designs a line of equipment for flight operations. To date, ACV has completed construction of fence walls and completed all 1,545 passenger terminal pile foundations. At the end of July and August 2023, ACV started construction of the airport’s main projects, including runways, taxiways, aprons, passenger terminals, and two connecting traffic routes.
According to the assessment of Mr. Duong Quang Dien, Acting Director of Long Thanh Airport Project Management Board, this is a national key project, very large scale, including many important items implemented at the same time. a ground. Therefore, the investor pays great attention to connecting and coordinating construction contractors on the construction site to ensure that the project construction site is arranged in the most scientific way, creating favorable conditions for all. Construction items were implemented smoothly.
On the passenger terminal construction site, there are nearly 1,000 engineers and workers, along with hundreds of pieces of equipment, organizing construction continuously and most effectively. To date, the contractor consortium has completed the installation of all 24 tower cranes to serve construction and construction of about 4 km of public service roads.
Soon add underground railway station design
For the passenger terminal package being implemented, the construction period according to the contract lasts 39 months, so based on the contract period, this package will not meet the target of completion by the end of 2025. One thing It is extremely unfortunate that this passenger terminal No. 1 will not be able to combine the construction of an underground railway station, because the foundation piles have been installed and the underground railway station item is not included in the design.
With the remaining 3 stations, if you want to have a connecting railway system, station 2 (2025-2030 period) is required to design and construct an underground railway station, it cannot be delayed because it will affect greatly affects exploitation efficiency due to traffic congestion. In the design, there must be a connection plan with the already built station No. 1 and an “open” plan to wait for connection to stations No. 3 and 4, which will be constructed in the period 2030-2045. In addition, the railway project connecting Long Thanh airport with Thu Thiem must determine the starting point of the line at the airport area to have a design plan to connect from the underground railway station inside Terminal 2 with light rail line.
[Construction of route T1 connecting from National Highway 51 to Long Thanh airport.]
Design items of Terminal 1 and construction drawing design documents (prepared by the Vietur Contractor Joint Venture), all must be approved by the Japanese Supervision Consulting Joint Venture JAC and CONICON. These design documents can be used to construct terminals 3 and 4 later, but must be modified for terminal 2 to suit the purpose. The item of building an underground railway station inside passenger terminal No. 2, starts from the design of the foundation pile system, because the foundation piles in the underground space will directly affect the design of the underground railway station layout. The design items of the passenger terminal body are all related to each other and must be reviewed and adjusted by the Design Consulting Consortium, in which the main work and the largest volume belongs to Arup – the company responsible. Structural design of the station body.
Designing a passenger terminal with an underground railway station is not a new or too difficult task. The design consulting consortium is completely capable of doing it and many countries in the world have done it for a long time. The problem is that the “headline” is set by the investor ACV (with authority to approve) for the joint venture to implement, and the fee design must be adjusted appropriately, corresponding to the volume generated. In construction, design must always be one step ahead, so this needs to be decided early and the task immediately assigned to the Design Consulting Joint Venture.
In addition, as mentioned above, it is necessary to clearly determine the starting point of the railway line connecting Long Thanh airport with Thu Thiem, to have a basis for designing the connection from the airport’s underground railway station at terminal no. 2 with railway line. This is the specific work of many experts in different fields, united to complete a not simple task. But if there is no early policy (outlining the article for design consultants), there will continue to be delays and difficulties in implementation like at terminal 1. It must be reaffirmed that Long Thanh airport has capacity. 100 million visitors/year, of which 80% are international visitors, traveling mainly (70%) to Ho Chi Minh City.
[On the passenger terminal construction site, there are nearly 1,000 engineers and workers, along with hundreds of pieces of equipment, continuously working.]
To meet the goal of making Long Thanh a regional transit airport, the railway connection with Ho Chi Minh City is mandatory. If traffic is only connected by road, it will be a huge obstacle to achieving the initial goals (if not impossible). Hopefully, ACV as well as higher authorities will soon advise the Prime Minister and start this work as soon as possible.
[Original article Cấp bách thiết kế ga ngầm đường sắt sân bay Long Thành by nhandan.vn. Translation by Google Translate.]
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