Lao Cai's transportation system is on edge ahead of the flood season, with over 5,000 landslide points in sight.

Despite the approaching 2026 rainy season, thousands of landslides from previous years in Lao Cai province remain unresolved. The crucial transportation system is facing the risk of paralysis due to weak soil and massive sinkholes that threaten to collapse.

Lao Cai, a border region with steep and heavily fragmented mountainous terrain, is suffering the terrible consequences of climate change. In mid-April 2026, despite the intense heat, the people and authorities there couldn't help but worry as they looked at the cracked mountain slopes.

Statistics reveal an alarming situation: After two consecutive rainy seasons in 2024-2025, the province's transportation infrastructure has been severely damaged. In 2025 alone, the province recorded over 5,000 landslides on embankments and hundreds of landslides on slopes. Enormous amounts of earth and rocks, totaling hundreds of thousands of cubic meters, have fallen onto roads, turning many vital routes into deadly traps. The long cracks and subsidence of roadbeds are not just figures in reports, but a constant nightmare for road users.

Surveys along key routes reveal the glaring damage. Provincial Road 156 (the Bat Xat - Ban Xeo section) is a prime example. Here, soil and rocks frequently spill onto the road surface even during light rain. Most dangerous are the areas where the embankment has collapsed in a "frog's mouth" shape.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ban Xeo commune, expressed concern that if heavy rain continues, the already unstable roadbed could collapse at any time, completely cutting off the local transportation artery. This situation is not unique, as numerous other roads such as 151C, 154, 163, and important national highways (4, 4D, 32, 70) are also in a similar state of "exposed slopes." In some locations, landslides have encroached deeply, destroying more than half of the roadbed, making the movement of trucks and buses extremely dangerous.

To cope with the 2026 rainy season, the Lao Cai Provincial Road Maintenance Management Board is making efforts to simultaneously implement 83 scheduled and emergency repair projects. Robust technical solutions such as reinforced concrete embankments and gabion retaining walls are being maximized for "black spots" on National Highways 4D, 32, and 37.

However, the actual construction is facing significant obstacles. Mr. Vu Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of Lao Cai Road Construction Joint Stock Company, pointed out three main "bottlenecks" that are hindering the progress:

• Lack of disposal sites: This is the most challenging problem. On routes like National Highway 4 or 4D, one side is a ravine/stream, and the other side is valuable farmland belonging to local people. Finding a space to dump thousands of cubic meters of landslide debris is almost impossible.

• Increased transportation costs: Due to the lack of a nearby disposal site, the unit has to transport soil and rocks tens of kilometers away, driving up costs many times over and putting financial pressure on maintenance work.

• Harsh weather conditions: The mountainous border terrain makes transporting materials and machinery difficult, especially during the unpredictable weather changes of the transitional seasons.

Faced with infrastructure and funding challenges, Lao Cai province has had to shift its focus to on-site prevention and response. The 2026 disaster prevention plan has been developed in detail for each critical road section.

Road management units have proactively deployed machinery (excavators, bulldozers) and reserve materials at the points with the highest risk of landslides. The goal is to immediately clear the road in the event of an incident to avoid isolating the mountainous area. The Road Maintenance Board has also issued an ultimatum, urging contractors to take advantage of favorable weather conditions to complete embankment construction before the first heavy rains of the season arrive.

A group of teachers on a charity trip to Lao Cai were involved in a horrific accident, resulting in the deaths of 9 people. Hồng An19:17:12 27/12/2025A particularly serious accident occurred in Phinh Ho commune, Lao Cai province on the morning of December 27th, when a 29-seat passenger bus carrying a group of teachers on a charity trip overturned, resulting in 9 deaths and 9 injuries. Authorities are urgently carrying out rescue operations and investigating the cause of the...