Hai Van Pass Tunnel Breaks ThroughA major breakthrough took place at the Hai Van tunnel on 28th October when workers on either side of the 6,247 m-long 11.9 m-wide tunnel met each other. Workers of a joint venture between the Japanese company Hazama and the Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No. 6 (Cienco 6) have dug from the northern side of the mountain. They met workers from a consortium formed by Song Da Construction and Korean firm Dong Ah, who had blasted 3 km into the rock from the south. Built 1,172m above sea level, the project consists of a main tunnel and a 4.7 m-wide emergency parallel tunnel. It is part of a 12.2 km-long road section that will link Lang Co bridge on highway 1A, south of Hue, with the Cau Den bridge north of Da Nang city.Construction began in 2001 and is scheduled to be completed in mid-2004. The tunnel has a total cost of US$251 million, 85% of which is financed on loans provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Click vn/11. Read E-News Weekly 4/2002, 30/2002 & 20/2003. 45/03.