Circular No. 10/2010/TT-BGTVT on management and maintenance of national roads

CIRCULAR

Rules on management and maintenance of roadways

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On the basis of Decree No. 86/2012/NĐ-CP dated October 19, 2012, issued by the Government detailing and guiding implementation of certain provisions of the Metrology Law;

Pursuant to Decree No. 51/2008/NĐ-CP dated April 22, 2008 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport;

The Minister of Transport shall stipulate rules on the management and maintenance of roadways as follows:

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

1. These Circulars specify the contents of the work on management and maintenance of roadways; apply technical standards and norms for management and maintenance of roadways and responsibilities for management and maintenance of roadways.

2. These Circulars do not apply to expressways.

Article 2. Applicability

These Circulars apply to agencies, organizations, and individuals related to the work of managing and maintaining roadways.

Article 3. Definitions

In this Circular, the following terms are understood as follows:

 1. Road management agency are specialized agencies performing state management functions under the Ministry of Transport; specialized agencies under provincial People's Committees directly under the central government, district People's Committees, town People's Committees, city People's Committees directly under provinces; commune People's Committees, ward People's Committees, townlet People's Committees.

2. Roadway works include roads, parking areas on roads, traffic lights, road signs, road markings, guideposts, barriers, traffic islands, median strips, kilometer posts, retaining walls, revetments, drainage systems, weigh stations, toll stations, and other auxiliary facilities and equipment on roads.

3.  Infrastructure systems  include various types of power lines, pipelines, conduits and technical trenches running along and across roads.

4. Maintenance procedure of road works are documents specifying the content, methods, and procedures for implementing maintenance of works. roadThe maintenance procedure for roadway works includes procedures for maintaining parts and structures of the works and procedures for maintaining installed and operated equipment. 

5. Regular maintenance consists of technical operations carried out regularly to prevent and promptly address minor damages to parts of the works and equipment.

Regular maintenance aims to minimize the development of minor damages into major ones. These tasks are performed continuously every day throughout the year on the entire route to ensure safe, smooth, and comfortable road transportation.

6. Maintenance of works encompasses activities aimed at maintaining  normal operation and ensuring safe use of the works.

Roadway maintenance work includes regular maintenance work; periodic repair work, and emergency repair work.

Periodic repair work includes medium repair work and major repair work.

7. Medium repair involves repairing damages and addressing signs of deterioration in parts and structures of the works that may affect the quality of road exploitation and cause safety issues.  exploitation.

8 Major repair refers to repair work conducted when there are damages or deterioration in multiple parts of the works to restore their initial quality.

9. Emergency repair involves repair work on roadway works affected by sudden impacts such as typhoons, floods, earthquakes, collisions, fires, or other sudden impacts leading to damages and deterioration requiring timely repairs to ensure continuous traffic flow.

Article 4. Requirements for Roadway Management and Maintenance Work

1. New constructed, upgraded, renovated, or majorly repaired roads must be inspected, handed over, managed, and maintained. The period for management and maintenance starts from the date when the project owner or manager signs the acceptance handover document and puts the works into operation.

2. Roadway management and maintenance work shall be carried out according to the provisions of the maintenance procedures, technical standards, and management and maintenance norms published by competent authorities.

3. Maintenance procedures for roadways

a) For new construction projects, upgrades, renovations applying new technologies and materials; projects transferring new technologies, roads of class II and above, the establishment of maintenance procedures shall be undertaken by the contractor or the supplier of technical equipment, handed over to the roadway management agency or the organization or individual responsible for maintaining and operating the roadways together with the completion documentation. Costs for establishing maintenance procedures shall be included in the total investment cost of the project.

For projects transferring management and operation technology, training must be completed before handing over the project.

Projects with equipment and suppliers of equipment must hand over operational technology procedures, safety regulations, and fire prevention measures.

b) For works not covered by point a, Clause 3 of this Article, organizations and individuals  shall carry out roadway management and maintenance work according to technical standards and relevant provisions  currently in force.

c) For works invested in through the forms: BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer), BTO (Build-Transfer-Operate), BT (Build-Transfer); Investorsmust base on the scale of the works specified in point a, Clause 3 of this Article to establish maintenance procedures, submit them to the competent state authority for signing and implementing the BOT, BTO, BT project contracts. 4. Contractors carrying out roadway maintenance work must fully comply with requirements for safety, hygiene, and the environment as follows:

a) When conducting maintenance work, they must obtain permission to construct from the competent roadway management agency, approval for traffic assurance plans. Contractors must have appropriate measures, schedules, time arrangements, and organize construction reasonably, with sufficient traffic signs, signals, diversion, lane separation, and personnel guiding traffic to ensure safe and smooth passage for people and vehicles.

b) During construction, environmental protection and labor safety regulations must be followed.

5. After acceptance and handover to the management and exploitation owner (roadway management agency), maintenance work must be guaranteed for a period of 12 months (twelve months) for periodic repairs or step 2 as stipulated in Clause 3, Clause 4 of Article 6 of these Circulars. For regular maintenance work, it must ensure effective and safe operation in accordance with technical standards.

ROADWAY MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE

PART II

Roadway management work  1. Storing and managing exploitation records of newly constructed, upgraded, renovated, periodically repaired, and emergency repaired roadway works.

Article 5. Content 2. Establishing management records for roadway works.

1. Storage and management of final acceptance records for new construction, upgrading, renovation, regular maintenance, and emergency repair of road projects.

2. Preparation of project management files for road works

a) For highway bridges: Includes documents extracted from the completion file such as the bridge's status quo, elevation marker file, plan view, longitudinal section, transverse section, geological cross-section, compensation and land clearance file, road boundary marker file, bridge safety zone file, inspection file, construction permit file; establish a bridge history book, update results from inspection and testing sessions, periodic repair projects, emergency repair projects; patrol and inspection logbook; update data on traffic counts (volume, vehicle load).

b) For highways: Includes documents extracted from the completion file such as plan view, longitudinal section, transverse section, geological cross-section., drainage system, compensation and land clearance file, road boundary marker file, construction permit file; establish a straightened plan view and update changes in traffic organization, land use for highways; patrol logbook; update data on traffic counts (volume, vehicle load); update results from inspection and testing sessions, periodic repair projects, emergency repair projects.

c) For highway ferry terminals: Includes documents extracted from the completion file such as plan view, including buoy layout plan, navigational signal layout plan, traffic organization, longitudinal section, transverse section of the terminal, compensation and land clearance file, road boundary marker file, ferry terminal safety zone file, construction permit file; update changes in waterway traffic flow, number of people and vehicles participating in traffic; changes in traffic organization, inspection results, and periodic and emergency repair projects.

d) For highway tunnels: Establish management files as prescribed for highways, additionally monitor and update the condition of ventilation fans, tunnel ventilation systems, fire and explosion incidents, operation of electrostatic dust extraction systems, lighting systems, pumping systems, drainage systems, wastewater treatment systems, fire protection systems, and other auxiliary equipment.

e) Embankments, culverts, and similar artificial structures, in addition to regular maintenance management, must establish separate inspection and monitoring plans.

3. Establish management files for highway safety zones.

a) Highway safety zone management files include the status of land use within the highway safety zone, structures affecting highway safety and traffic safety; violations, violation times, and violation resolution processes.

b) Branch road connection files must be established separately to track and update related violations concerning branch road connections to work with competent authorities and local governments to ensure highway traffic safety.

c) Establish management files fortechnical infrastructure systems including completion files of technical infrastructure projects within the highway safety zone, construction permits, and other relevant documents. 

4. Organize the implementation of management and protection of highway projects; coordinate with police, People's Committees at all levels to manage and protect highway transportation infrastructure.

5. Monitor the damage situation of highway projects; organize regular patrols and inspections to promptly identify damages and violations of highway transportation infrastructure, handle according to authority or propose People's Committees at all levels to process according to regulations.

6. Conduct regular technical condition checks monthly, quarterly, annually; conduct emergency checks after each flood, storm, or other abnormal impacts..

7. Implement vehicle counts, analyze data, and evaluate the growth in volume and types of motorized vehicles on highways.

8. Manage vehicle loads and dimensions; organize issuance of travel permits for tracked vehicles, oversized vehicles, overweight vehicles on highways; inspect vehicle loads at fixed or temporary weigh stations and handle according to regulations; analyze and assess the impact of oversized and overweight vehicles on the durability of highway projects.  9. Establish accident tracking forms, determine initial causes of each accident, and losses due to accidents. Coordinate with public security agencies and local authorities to resolve traffic accidents according to authority. 

10. Implement lane and route planning, organize traffic; regularly review and adjust traffic signs to be appropriate; establish black spot files, handle and monitor the results of resolved black spots.

Ensure traffic operations;

11. monitor weather conditions, flooding, project incidents, handle and report according to regulations;12. Report periodically and urgently as prescribed.

Content of Highway MaintenanceHighway maintenance work includes: Regular maintenance; periodic repairs; and emergency repairs.

Article 6.  2. Regular maintenance is daily or weekly, monthly, or quarterly work aimed at monitoring the condition of highways, proposing solutions to prevent damage, timely repairing minor damages affecting highway quality, maintaining normal operational conditions of highways to ensure safe and smooth traffic.

1. Periodic repair work involves repairing highway damages according to specified deadlines, combined with addressing some defects appearing during exploitation, aiming to restore initial technical conditions and improve highway exploitation conditions (if necessary).

Periodic repair work includes medium repairs and major repairs; between two major repair periods, there must be at least one medium repair.

3. a) For highways

The deadlines for medium and major repairs of highways are defined based on the type of pavement structure and the calculated traffic volume of the highway surface as shown in the table below.

Type of pavement structure

Medium repair

- Temporary bridges: Periodic repair work must be based on the results of regular inspections._{organize credit institutions, foreign bank branches are responsible for organizing the implementation of this Circular.}- Other bridges: Periodic repair work must be based on the results of regular inspections and testing.₁) in the Appendices of the Regular Maintenance Standards for Roads.

b) For road bridges:

- Temporary bridges: Regular repair work must be based on the results of periodic inspections.

- Other bridges: Regular repair work must be based on the results of periodic inspections and testing.

c) For highway tunnels and ferry terminals: In addition to repairs according to operational procedures consistent with regulations, regular repairs must be carried out based on the results of periodic inspections.

4. Emergency repair work involves repairing road damages caused by natural disasters such as floods and typhoons or other unusual incidents. The direct managing unit of the road must proactively develop plans, urgently mobilize all human resources, equipment, and materials to organize traffic diversion and ensure traffic flow while promptly reporting to the road management authority for support.

Emergency repairs are divided into two steps as follows:

a) Step 1: Implement urgent road repairs to ensure rapid traffic flow and minimize damage to road infrastructure. Step 1 is conducted simultaneously while addressing the issue and preparing documentation to complete the necessary procedures for settlement.

b) Step 2: Further address the issues from Step 1 to restore the road to its original scale and technical standards before the incident occurred or to strengthen and solidify the infrastructure. Step 2 is carried out according to the procedures and formalities prescribed for basic construction projects.

Article 7. Application of Technical Standards and Norms for Road Management and Maintenance Work

1. The Vietnam Highway Corporation organizes the development, review, and publication of foundational technical standards for regular road maintenance.

The Vietnam Highway Corporation guides, supervises, and inspects the implementation of technical standards and norms for regular road maintenance nationwide. It monitors and evaluates the application of technical standards and norms for regular road maintenance; converts industry standards into national standards for regular road maintenance (including rural roads). It establishes regular road maintenance norms to be submitted to the competent authority for publication as prescribed.

2. Technical standards and norms for regular and emergency repairs of roads

Apply according to the technical standards and norms prescribed for basic construction projects.

3. Technical standards and norms for regular road maintenance

a) Apply according to current technical standards for regular road maintenance

b) Apply according to Regular Road Maintenance Norms

c) Maintenance and upkeep norms for grass cover, greenery, lighting systems, piles, and similar norms not included in the sets of norms mentioned in Point b Clause 3 of this Article shall apply corresponding norms of other sectors or localities issued by the competent authority.

Article 8. Responsibilities for Road Management and Maintenance

1. Responsibilities of organizations and individuals in road management and maintenance work:

a) Implement road management and maintenance tasks according to the requirements stipulated in Article 4 of this Circular;

b) Detect, prevent, and promptly handle violations concerning road infrastructure and unauthorized use of land reserved for roads;

c) Bear responsibility for the deterioration of road infrastructure quality due to non-compliance with prescribed maintenance procedures.

2. National Highway System

The Vietnam Highway Corporation implements management, maintenance, records storage, and exploitation of completion documents for newly constructed, upgraded, and improved road projects; compiles and reports to the Ministry of Transport annually before January 15th and when required about the management and maintenance of the national highway system.

3.  HLocal Road System

a) HProvincial roads and urban roads are managed and maintained by the provincial People's Committee through specialized agencies, the Department of Transportation; County roads and commune roads are managed and maintained by the provincial People's Committee according to specific conditions of the locality;

b)  HThe Department of Transportation provides guidance, monitors, and inspects the performance of tasks related to the management and maintenance of local road systems. c) The Department of Transportation is responsible for compiling periodic or emergency reports on the management and maintenance of local road systems and national highways entrusted to the Vietnam Highway Corporation and the Ministry of Transport. 4. Special-purpose roads, those not managed and operated by the State, and those built without state budget funds are managed and maintained by the project sponsor according to published national technical standards.

5. When upgrading or expanding operating roads, the project sponsor is responsible for directing contractors to implement measures to ensure traffic safety as prescribed. hThe Vietnam Highway Corporation assists the Minister of Transport in guiding, inspecting, and supervising localities and sponsors regarding professional management and maintenance of roads.

Based on management and information provision requirements, the Vietnam Highway Corporation is responsible for building a road database and establishing statistical forms and reports for road management and maintenance work. 1. The Director of the Ministry’s Office, the Inspector General, Heads of Departments, Chairpersons of Provincial People's Committees, the Director-General of the Vietnam Highway Corporation, and Heads of relevant agencies, organizations, and individuals are responsible for implementing this Circular.

2. During implementation, if any difficulties arise, agencies, units, and individuals should report to

6. the Vietnam Highway Corporation

for consolidation and proposal to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and resolution./.

Chapter III

IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 9. Effective Date

This Circular shall take effect forty-five days from the date of signature.

Article 10. Implementation Organization

1. The Director of the Ministry's Office, the Inspector General of the Ministry, the Heads of the Departments, the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of provinces, the Directors of the Vietnam Highway Administration, and the Heads of other agencies, organizations, and individuals related to this matter are responsible for implementing this Circular.

2. During the implementation process, if any difficulties arise, the relevant agencies, units, and individuals shall report them to Vietnam Highway Administration for consolidation and proposal to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and resolution./.