📋 Tender Overview
Rocky mountain terrain, large amount of rock breaking and ground leveling are causing many challenges for the construction of Phong Tho 220kV Transformer Station (Lai Chau). Currently, construction units are focusing resources to overcome these difficulties to ensure project progress. In the last days of 2025, under the rising sun of the mountains of Lai Chau province, we were present at the Phong Tho 220kV transformer station construction site when the construction atmosphere was in the most urgent state. From the high mountain slopes, the sound of excavators and rock drills reverberates rhythmically, blending with the sound of dump trucks continuously coming in and out, creating a construction site music typical of energy projects racing against time. Amid the huge amount of rock and soil being excavated and leveled, the shape of a large-scale electrical infrastructure project is gradually taking shape in the middle of the Northwest. Construction units are focusing on breaking rocks and leveling the ground of Phong Tho 220kV substation - Photo: VGP/Toan Thang. The projects bottleneck is breaking rocks and leveling the ground to create construction ground. Mr. Hoang Thuat, Deputy Head of Technical Department of the Northern Power Project Management Board, said that Phong Tho 220kV substation (substation) is currently highly focused on leveling the ground and blasting and breaking rocks to create construction ground. To date, the volume of ground leveling and rock breaking has reached about 50%; In particular, the volume of rock demolition and blasting at the 110 kV distribution yard is still very large, about 150,000 m3. This is the bottleneck that determines the progress of the whole project. However, the advantage is that the project receives active support from the local government and departments, branches and branches of Lai Chau province. The issuance of additional blasting passports is carried out flexibly and promptly, creating conditions to speed up construction progress during peak periods. The investor requires contractors to maximize rock drilling machines and rock transport vehicles to speed up rock breaking and blasting on the 110 kV side. According to the plan, immediately after completing this phase, construction efforts will be concentrated simultaneously on both construction and equipment installation, in order to shorten the time and strive for the goal of energizing the station in June 2026. Talking to reporters at the construction site, Mr. Tran The Hoang, construction manager of Phong Tho 220 kV substation under Power Construction Company 4 (PCC4) said that his unit is mainly in charge of installing electrical equipment for station. We are digging rocks, blasting, and laying the foundation. Wherever we can do it, we start construction immediately. We dont wait until everything is finished before we start, because that will not keep up with the schedule, Mr. Hoang said. According to the contractors assessment, the rock drilling and blasting work is currently about 50%, the foundation work is also about 40-50%. Equipment for basic construction has been relatively fully assembled. However, the biggest difficulty at this time lies not only in the rocks, but in the soil for the foundation. RELATED NEWSThe on-site soil source is not enough to compensate for the very large leveling volume, while the amount of soil obtained from the rock blasting process is insignificant. We have reported to the investor, the survey - design consulting unit has also made field measurements, but the specific plan for where to get land and how to get it to keep up with the schedule is still being calculated, Mr. Hoang shared frankly. That difficulty becomes even more obvious when the progress of blasting depends heavily on the source of explosives and related procedures. Each round of blasting requires road closures and multiple levels of permission, which takes a lot of time. There were periods that coincided with major local political events, and the construction site was forced to immobilize for half a month. However, on the construction site, teams still work three shifts continuously. From 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., excavators and drills work non-stop, just hoping to remove the day or that day. Sharing with a reporter from the Government Electronic Newspaper, Mr. Pham Van Chinh, project supervision consultant, said that according to the initial investment plan, the Phong Tho 220kV station project is expected to be energized at the end of 2025. However, actual construction shows great difficulties, especially work. rock blasting and leveling. The total volume of soil and rock for leveling is up to more than 145,000 m3, but currently only about more than 45,000 m3 of rock has been processed and more than 40,000 m3 has been leveled. Mr. Chinh said that although the ground has been fully handed over by the locality, if the progress of blasting and transporting soil and rock remains as it is today, it will take another 4-5 months to complete the rock demolition phase. Meanwhile, each blasting session takes 3-4 days to process all the rock. The construction site currently only maintains about 20 workers, because the nature of construction does not allow too many people to gather at the same time. From the perspective of a supervision consultant, Mr. Chinh highly appreciates the support of the local government, from handing over the site to granting blasting permits, as well as the determination of the construction units when investing in machinery and equipment in a timely manner. According to preliminary calculations, the project still lacks more than 200,000 m3 of backfill land. Each time blasting only collects about 100-200 m3 of interspersed soil, it is nothing compared to the actual needs, Mr. Chinh pondered. In the midst of that sunny and windy construction site, what remains with us are not only the numbers on volume or progress, but the images of people clinging to the mountains day and
