Greater Mekong Subregion Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway Project - Tranche 1

The project preparation should be strengthened to avoid excessive unexpected changes during implementation. Upon detailed design, the estimated civil works cost increased substantially mainly because of price escalation and engineering enhancement. Considering the budget availability, the detailed design was modified with a lower civil works cost and the procurement for one civil works contract was postponed. However, the bids for the civil works contracts was much lower than estimated, about 30%. Such uncertainty and fluctuation in project cost caused many concerns and wasted a lot of time in project design, approval, financing, procurement, and contract management.