The Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway, a key infrastructure project designed to improve connectivity in the Mekong Delta region, is 75 percent complete. 

The 51-kilometer Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway, which runs through five districts in the southern province of Tien Giang, was partly opened to traffic this week to reduce pressure on National Highway 1A.

The project is set to be completed by the end of the year when it will serve as a major link between the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.

With work still to be done on the expressway, cars will only be allowed to run southward from February 7-11, and in the opposite direction from February 15-19, as people tend to leave HCMC before the Lunar New Year’s Eve (February 11) and return the following week.

Only some sections of the expressway have been paved with asphalt. Overpasses are being built to allow local residents to cross the expressway.

The expressway hosts 39 bridges passing over rivers and canals. 

For now authorities are only permitting under-16 vans and trucks under 2.5 tonnes to use the expressway with speed limits of 40 kilometers per hour.

The expressway passes through many rice fields and fruit farms which the agriculture-based Tien Giang Province is famous for. 

A welder works on roadside barrier. The work of installing lights and smart traffic control equipment on the expressway is ongoing.

Cranes and trucks can be seen at work along the expressway.

An unfinished part of the expressway.

The expressway connects eventually with the My Thuan-Can Tho Expressway, construction of which began a few days ago.