Upgrading and rehabilitation of Vehicular Bridges at different locations (Country-wide) Vietnam 2014

Vietnam is the eastern most country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 6% of its land area covered by water, it is well-connected by its massive road networks with thousands of vehicular bridges crossing over rivers and streams. Many of the bridges were built more than 50 years ago with some constructed as far back to their colonial days under the French.

Since it opened its market to the world in 2000, Vietnam has received massive investment into its shores. Hence, with urban and industrial development over the last decade, many of these bridges are not able to meet up to the load requirement of the growing traffic. As such, the Directorate of Roads of Vietnam has a uphill task to upgrade and rehabilitate its aging infrastructure of vehicular bridges throughout the country. Due to lack of technical know-how to upgrade the bridges, there have been plans towards replacement of the old bridges with new bridges. But this approach is costly and time-consuming.

Since early 2010, Fyfe Asia together with its Vietnamese partner has been working closely with the local university and government agency to explore on new technology using FYFE Asia’s FRP Composite System for strengthening of bridges. The successful completion of the research and subsequent implementation of the pilot project paved the way for the use of FYFE Asia’s System for strengthening to bridges throughout the country. It has now become a yearly program to improve the bridges of the vast infrastructure network of Vietnam.