An expressway connecting Bac Giang Province with the China border will open to traffic this Sunday, and workers are racing to get it ready. 

Work on the long-delayed expressway, which runs from Bac Giang Province, 80 kilometers northeast of Hanoi, to Chi Lang District in the northern mountainous province of Lang Son on the China border, is 98 percent complete.

Construction began in October 2015 and was scheduled for completion last year. But the Ministry of Transport had to find a new investor after the original one could no longer raise funds for it.

The 64-kilometer expressway will link up with the Hanoi-Bac Giang expressway, and help enhance trade between Vietnam and China.

The expressway is designed to allow vehicles to travel at a speed of 100 km per hour. Its total cost is estimated at VND12.19 trillion ($523.67 million).

Workers prepare to mark lanes in some sections near Lang Son.

Hoang Thi Phan, a native of the northern province of Yen Bai, installs steel guardrails. To ensure the expressway is finished on schedule Phan and other workers are working through their lunch time and even night.

Workers asphalt a section of the expressway. The work was finished on Wednesday.

Signs have been installed along the expressway.

The expressway runs parallel to the existing National Highway 1A, the 2,300-km transnational road, and will reduce the travel time from Hanoi to Lang Son by 30 minutes to two and a half hours.

The expressway will collect toll for the next 17 years. There are five levels of tolls, ranging from around VND2,000 per kilometer for cars with nine seats or less and VND7,200 for large trucks.