CIRCULAR

AMENDMENT TO CIRCULAR NO. 03/2019/TT-BGTVT DATED JANUARY 11, 2019 OF THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT ON MANAGEMENT AND RECOVERY OF ROAD-RELATED NATURAL DISASTERS

Pursuant to Law on Road Traffic dated November 13, 2008;

Pursuant to the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention dated June 19, 2013; Law on amendment to the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and the Law on Dikes dated June 17, 2020;

Pursuant to Decree No. 30/2017/ND-CP dated March 21, 2017 of the Government on organization and implementation of accident, natural accident response, search and rescue;

Pursuant to Decree No. 66/2021/ND-CP dated July 6, 2021 of the Government elaborating the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention, the Law on Dikes, and the Law on amendments to the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and the Law on Dikes;

Pursuant to Decree No. 12/2017/ND-CP dated February 10, 2017 of Government on functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of Ministry of Transport;

At request of the Director of Transport Safety Department and General Director of Directorate for Roads of Vietnam;

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Article 1. Amendment to Circular No. 03/2019/TT-BGTVT dated January 11, 2019 of the Minister of Transport on management and recovery of road-related natural disasters

1. Add Clause 2a following Clause 2 Article 3 as follows:

 “2a. “natural emergency on road” refers to a natural disaster which has occurred or is occurring and is potentially threatening to road users, vehicles, and road traffic infrastructures, warrants immediate deployment of emergency response measures to prevent further damage and recover from damage already inflicted, and is announced via decision of competent individual.”.

2. Amend Clause 3 Article 3 as follows:

“3. “road authority” means the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, Vietnam Road Administration; transport authorities affiliated to People’s Committees of provinces (hereinafter referred to as “Departments of Transport”), People’s Committees of districts, and People’s Committees of communes.”.

3. Amend the title of Article 4 and Clause 1 Article 4 as follows:

a) Amend the title of Article 4 as follows:

“Article 4. Rules in road-related natural disaster management, recovery, and rescue”;

b) Amend Clause 1 Article 4 as follows:

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4. Amend Clause 1 Article 9 as follows:

“1. Based on natural disaster forecast and warning and documents of superior, Directorate for Roads of Vietnam (for national highways), and Departments of Transport (for local roads, segments of national highway), within their functions and tasks shall coordinate implementation of natural disaster response, search, and rescue on road.”.

5. Add Article 9a following Article 9 as follows:

“Article 9a. Decisions announcing natural emergency and announcing the end of natural emergency

1. Entitlement to decide

a) Minister of Transport shall promulgate decisions announcing natural emergency and the end of natural emergency on national highways and expressways; Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention and control or authorities affiliated to Ministry of Transport shall advise Minister of Transport to promulgate decisions announcing natural emergency.

b) Chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces shall promulgate decisions announcing natural emergency and the end of natural emergency on local roads; the Provincial Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention and control or road transport authorities affiliated to People’s Committees of provinces shall advise Chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces to promulgate decisions announcing natural emergency.

2. Contents of decision announcing natural emergency

a) Starting point, development, area of effect of natural disaster; damaged road infrastructures due to natural disasters; level of damage sustained by work items; losses or potential losses;

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c) Assign relevant agencies and entities to implement response and recovery measures.

3. Announce the end of natural emergency

Based on the development of natural disaster or recovery results, advising authorities shall request competent individuals under Clause 1 of this Article to promulgate decisions announcing the end of natural emergency.”.

6. Amend Article 11 as follows:

“Article 11. Disaster recovery and traffic control

1. Search for victims; search for vehicles and properties of the government and general public that have been sunken or buried by natural disasters.

2. Aid and stabilize life of inhabitants of areas struck by natural disasters or isolated from road access due to natural disasters.

3. Build emergency structures for the purpose of disaster recovery and traffic control

4. Repair and recover construction machinery and equipment that are public property.

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7. Add Article 11a following Article 11 as follows:

“Article 11a. Construction of emergency structures for disaster recovery

1. Build emergency structures to promptly recover from natural disasters, ensure safe and coherent road traffic in accordance with Article 12 hereof. Construction of emergency structures must be implemented via Order to construct emergency structures of competent authorities.

2. Entitlement to decide the Order to construct emergency structures:

a) General Director of Directorate for Roads of Vietnam for national highways and expressways within the responsibility of Ministry of Transport (other than cases under Point c and Point d of this Clause); Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention or authorities affiliated to Directorate for Roads of Vietnam shall advise general director of Directorate for Roads of Vietnam to decide on the Order to construct emergency structures;

b) Chairpersons of People’s Committees of all levels shall decide for local roads under their management;

c) Heads of construction authorities of Ministry of Transport shall decide for road structures built anew, renovated, and upgraded in which Ministry of Transport decides to invest and acts as project developer;

d) Heads of central authorities representing the owners shall decide for road structures managed by enterprises which are assigned by the government to invest in construction, manage, and operate road structures.

3. The order to construct emergency structures contains the following main details:

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b) Persons assigned to manage construction process;

c) Build emergency structures and control traffic in accordance with Article 13 hereof (for available road structures). Disaster recovery solutions in accordance with regulations on construction and natural disaster prevention (for road construction or upgrade or renovation projects);

d) Construction period;

dd) Estimate costs, resources for implementation and other relevant requirements.

4. Persons assigned to manage and carry out construction work are allowed to decide the entirety of the work throughout construction process, including:

a) Assign organizations and individuals to survey, design, supervise, build, and carry out other tasks necessary for the construction of emergency structures;

b) Once emergency structures have been built, produce and request approval for the as-built documents in accordance with Article 14 hereof.”.

8. Amend Clause 3 and add Clause 4, Clause 5, and Clause 6 to Article 12 as follows:

“3. Disaster recovery and traffic control during construction process of road construction, upgrade, or renovation projects

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b) In case damage is done by natural disasters, project developers or investors shall inform local government or Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention and control of districts and relevant authorities to inspect the site, calculate the damage for the purpose of processing and disaster recovery in accordance with regulations on construction, natural disaster prevention, and this Circular;

c) If the damage is tremendous or done to work items other than those in the projects, project developers or investors shall report the level of damage and estimated damages to persons deciding on investment or competent authorities to decide.

4. Disaster recovery and traffic control during construction process of road maintenance projects

a) Within the scope of construction work, construction contractors shall inform project developers or investors, insurance authorities, the government, or Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention and control of districts, and relevant authorities to carry out physical inspection, calculate damage done by natural disasters, and produce disaster recovery solutions for the insurers (if structure insurance has been purchased);

b) If insurance is not purchased or the damage so tremendous that it exceeds the insurance premiums, project developers or investors shall report level of damage and estimated damages of natural disasters to allow persons deciding on investment or competent authorities to decide.

c) If traffic infrastructures within the construction radius are damaged but are not work items of the projects or the construction in progress, road authorities, road management contractors and road maintenance contractors are responsible for complying with Article 13 and Article 14 hereof.

5. Disaster recovery and traffic control for road projects that have entered into operation, use, and are eligible for maintenance.

a) If traffic infrastructures that are not parts of projects are damaged in case of natural disasters, road authorities and road management contractors and road maintenance contractors are responsible for complying with Article 13 and Article 14 hereof;

b) If traffic infrastructures that are parts of the projects are damaged in case of natural disasters, road authorities shall inform project developers and relevant entities shall be present on-site and cooperate in determining causes and responsibilities for repairing any damage; in case of failure to determine causes or responsibilities for repairing any damage, project developers are responsible for organizing assessment of damage causes to find the causes and responsibilities for repairing the damage;

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6. Disaster recovery and traffic control for road projects invested in form of public-private partnerships and eligible for insurance

a) If traffic infrastructures that are not parts of projects are damaged in case of natural disasters, Investors and enterprises of PPP projects are responsible for immediately recovering and repairing the damage in accordance with Article 13 and Article 14 hereof;

b) If traffic infrastructures that are parts of the projects are damaged in case of natural disasters, investors and enterprises of PPP projects shall notify road authorities to be present on-site and cooperate in determining causes and responsibilities for repairing any damage; in case of failure to determine damage causes, investors and enterprises of PPP projects are responsible for organizing assessment of damage causes to determine repair expenditure;

If the damage is caused by natural disasters, investors and enterprises of PPP projects are responsible for complying with Article 13 and Article 14 hereof; if the damage is caused by structural quality which falls under project maintenance responsibility, investors and enterprises of PPP projects are responsible for immediately repair, recover the consequences, and assume legal responsibility for failing to adequately repair thereby causing loss of traffic safety.”.

9. Amend Article 13 as follows:

“Article 13. Work items serving first-step disaster recovery and traffic control

1. Traffic congestion relief

As soon as competent authority announces natural emergency, within the responsibilities, road authorities, project management boards, investors, road management contractors, road maintenance contractors, construction contractors, enterprises investing in construction and management of use of road structures must immediately implement the following tasks:

a) When natural disasters damage and obstruct road traffic: cordon off both ends of the damaged road segment using tapes, fences, barriers, and temporary signs; clear and prepare at least one lane to allow safe traffic flow; erect fences, assign personnel to guard, control traffic, regulate traffic in heavily damaged segments or structures, and announce on mass media; erect delineators, floats, water level gauge boards, cooperate with local governments in establishing barriers, regulating traffic, controlling traffic, and prepare other warnings if necessary in case of great inundation depth;

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c) Road signaling system and traffic safety system fall or are damaged: immediately restore, replace, and add additional traffic safety system to ensure safe and thorough traffic;

d) Cut-side erosion occurs and completely blocks road surface: erect temporary signs on both ends of the affected segments, regulate traffic, and clear the rubbles.

2. Moderate and small damage

a) Road surface suffers from localized depressions, potholes, being peeled off, pavements are eroded; road surface is damaged by high tide; runaway truck ramps suffer from depressions or erosion: clear, erect temporary signs; when the weather permits, rectify using appropriate materials or restore to former or equivalent conditions of traffic structures and safety system to ensure traffic safety, structural safety, and suitable with usage;

b) For damage to small bridges (including erosion of abutments, piers, approaches, energy dissipaters, etc.) causing loss of safety to traffic and structures: repair the damage using cement, concrete or reinforced concrete or gabions;

c) For damage to sewers and culverts (including erosion in upstream sections, downstream sections, headwall, wingwall, energy dissipaters): repair the damage using cement, concrete or reinforced concrete in combination with gabions to ensure water drainage;

d) For damage to water drainage system (including gutters, drops, canals) such as erosion, lifting, localized inundation: clear, remove sludge, mud, rock to guarantee water drainage; reinforce and replace damaged gutters to install new gutters to redirect water flow for the purpose of drainage;

dd) For damage to underground or submerged roads (including erosion of surface, embankment, upstream energy dissipaters, downstream energy dissipaters, signals, delineators, water level gauge board): repair using cement, concrete or reinforced concrete or gabions or restore to former for equivalent structures;

e) For damage to auxiliary structures, administrative buildings, road authority buildings, warehouses, workshop, storage of backup materials: repair, replace, add to auxiliary structures to maintain standard operational status.

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a) Cut-side erosion creates cracks or crowns with potentially further erosion: reduce load sustained by the crown sections partially or entirely or create temporary detour (for areas where no existing detour is available);

b) Cut-side erosion causes rocks to fall onto roads and potentially more leading to highly unsafe traffic situations: dig and pry unstable rocks and boulders, or reduce load induced by cut-side slope (either manually, or manually in combination with machinery and expanding powder, or by using explosion) in case of troublesome terrain; depending on topographic characteristics and stone embankment structure, deploy steel mesh fixed onto the stone embankment; depending on topographic characteristics and embankment toes, place gabions to prevent rocks from falling onto the roads.

c) Fill-side erosion cuts into roads significantly and possibly entirely: depending on terrain and topographic characteristics, use structural steel beams to create barriers and combine with gabions or reinforced concrete or expand further into cut-side slope (if the terrain permits) or repair using materials appropriate to the locality;

d) Fill-side erosion occurs along rivers, channels, canals, coasts and potentially cuts into roads: depending on topographic characteristics, adjust the road by expanding further into cut-side slope or creating new roads deep into cut-side slope altogether or place gabions or use structural steel beams or sheet piling to create barriers or reinforced concrete or materials appropriate to the local conditions. If the aforementioned bodies of water change their current or flow directly at the fill-side slope: correct the current and reinforce the fill-side slope depending on the terrain;

dd) Small bridges collapse or are damaged causing loss of traffic safety: establish perimeter using tapes, fences, temporary signs, and regulate traffic; repair, reinforce, or establish temporary localized detour or bridges for primary traffic flow;

e) Culverts are damaged, broken apart, swept by water, sunken, too narrow for water drainage: repair, replace, or install more culverts rapidly and effectively;

g) Road segments are cracked, push asphalt layers up or into strips, and leave wheel impressions; road surface is cracked or broken; road segments are regularly inundated: sweep aside while ensuring smoothness and combine with placing temporary signs and other signs; when the weather permits, rectify or restore former or equivalent structure to ensure traffic safety and structural safety;

h) Floating structures, pontoon bridges, canoes, ferries are damaged (including damaged signaling systems; structure incidents, sinking or collision of craft): repair or manufacture, erect additional signals to ensure safe operation of craft; adopt traffic control and anti-collision measures to extract and remove obstacles caused by sunken craft; repair damaged craft.

4. Very severe damage which involves complicated technical matters

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10. Amend title of Article 14 and Clause 1, Clause 2, and Clause 3 Article 14 as follows:

a) Amend the title of Article 14 as follows:

“Article 14. Regulations on As-built documents of emergency structures for the purpose of first-step disaster recovery and traffic control”;

b) Amend Clause 1, Clause 2, and Clause 3 Article 14 as follows:

“1. Entities responsible for producing and assessing As-built documents of emergency structures for the purpose of first-step disaster recovery and traffic control

a) Vietnam Road Administration and Departments of Transport shall oversee national highways under their management;

b) People’s Committees of provinces shall oversee their provinces’ roads;

c) Enterprises assigned by the government to invest in construction, manage, and operate road structures shall oversee road structures under their management;

d) Within 30 days from the date on which on-site construction is complete, entities mentioned under Points a, b, and c of this Clause are responsible for submitting As-built documents to competent authorities under Clause 2 of this Article for appraisal and approval.

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a) Directorate for Roads of Vietnam for national highways;

b) People’s Committees of provinces for their provinces’ roads;

c) Heads of central authorities representing the owners for road structures under management of enterprises assigned by the government to invest in construction, manage, and operate road structures;

d) As-built documents must be appraised and the results thereof must be notified within 30 days from the date on which appraising entities receive adequate documents.

3. Documents on emergency structures for the purpose of first-step disaster recovery and traffic control include:

a) Presentation of entities producing the documents;

b) Presentation of disaster recovery and traffic control solutions;

c) Decisions announcing natural emergency, the Order to construct emergency structures, official telegrams (if any), mobilization orders, guiding documents of competent authorities relating to disaster recovery for the damage presented in the documents;

d) Initial reports of entities producing the documents, agencies, other relevant entities regarding damage caused by natural disasters accompanied by pictures;

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e) Expenditure estimates for implemented emergency structures for the purpose of first-step disaster recovery and traffic control accompanied by detail explanation of the calculations;

g) Damage record produced on-site with Steering Committees on natural disaster prevention, control, and rescue or People’s Committees of districts where the damage is done;

h) Technical construction drawings indicating quantity and structure of temporary structures (applicable to cases under Clause 2, Clause 3, and Clause 4 Article 13 hereof);

i) Construction logs, images of construction process, time sheets of personnel assigned to regulate, control, and redirect traffic.”.

11. Amend Point c Clause 3 and Point a, Point b Clause 4 Article 15 as follows:

a) Amend Point c Clause 3 Article 15 as follows:

“c) Directors of Departments of Transport, Chairpersons of People’s Committees of districts to mobilize materials, vehicles, and equipment within their management to promptly respond to natural disasters and carry out search and rescue on provinces’ roads;”.

b) Amend Point a and Point b Clause 4 Article 15 as follows:

“a) For national highways

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b) For local roads

The management, monitoring, and maintenance of equipment and instruments shall conform to regulations applicable to People’s Committees of provinces.”.

Article 2. Annul Clause 1 Article 6 of Circular No. 03/2019/TT-BGTVT dated January 11, 2019 of the Minister of Transport.

Article 3. Transition clauses

For emergency structures for the purpose of first-step disaster recovery and traffic control implemented before the effective date hereof, production, review, appraisal, and approval shall conform to Article 14 of Circular No. 03/2021/TT-BGTVT dated January 11, 2019 of the Minister of Transport.

Article 4. Entry into force

This Circular comes into force from March 01, 2022.

Article 5. Organizing implementation

Chief of the Ministry Office, Chief Inspectorate of Ministry, Directors, Director General of Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, Directors of Departments of Transport of provinces and central-affiliated cities, Director of Department of Transport - Construction of Lao Cai Province, heads of relevant entities, organizations and individuals are responsible for the implementation of this Circular./.

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PP. MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER




Le Dinh Tho