The new expressway will be 42 km shorter than the National Road 4 – 190 km vs 232 km. Besies, it will be wider adding a long waited for capacity to NR4 which is indeed too narrow to provide congestion-free traffic flow. Another problem of National Road 4 is frequent flooding leading to road closure and resulting in huge delays in schedules of passenger and cargo traffic which has to detoure to National Road 3 what considerably increases the travel distance between Phnom Penh and Sihabnoukville.
The new expressway will start at the intersection of National Road 4 and Tomnub Kob Srov Road in Phnom Penh. It will be built in collaboration with the China Road and Bridge Corporation and will cost about USD1.9 billion. It is estimated that the completion of the expressway will take 48 months. Intially it was planned to start construction at the end of 2017 what in fact never happened but hopefully before the end of Novebmer the green light will be finally given to the project.
That said, National Road 4 which is for the moment remains the Kingdom’s main economic corridor, will get a facelift and 200 km extension early the next year. The project will be financed by the World Bank and will cost USD110 million.
New Expressway Planned between Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh
News in Asia
A brand-new expressway will be soon constructed parallel to the National Road 4 linking the capital of Cambidoa Phnom Penh and the coastal resort city of Sihanoukville, since recently the major hotspot for Chinese tourism in the country.