Thousands of vehicles were stuck in serious congestion on streets around the Nguyen Huu Canh overpass in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday morning as the major link for travelers from Thu Duc City and Binh Thanh District to the heart of the city was blocked for repair works.

The bottleneck began at around 7:00 am as many commuters, who were unaware of the blockade, still took their familiar daily U-turn at the foot of the Saigon Bridge to enter the Nguyen Huu Canh overpass, but were met with a ban sign placed at the entrance of the overpass.

Although they were instructed to detour around the Vinhomes Central Park residential complex toward Nguyen Huu Canh Street, thousands of them quickly overloaded street sections below the blocked flyover, causing the serious gridlock.

Starting Thursday night, all vehicles have been banned from the Nguyen Huu Canh overpass for its main span to be repaired.

The span's four cable bundles had been broken during the construction of a sewer system, according to results from a recent inspection.

While authorities have built a two-phase repairing plan, they have yet to officially announce how long the ban will last.

Cars are advised to make a detour from the Saigon Bridge to Dien Bien Phu Street, then take a U-turn at the street’s intersection with Nguyen Van Thuong Street before turning right into Nguyen Huu Canh Street.

Motorcyclists, meanwhile, can take an alternative route from the Saigon Bridge to Dien Bien Phu Street, then take a U-turn at the Hang Xanh intersection, before turning right into No. 602 Alley on Dien Bien Phu Street to enter Nguyen Huu Canh Street.

After its inauguration in 2002, the Nguyen Huu Canh flyover was repaired once in 2017, after which the 618.29m-long and 12.7m-wide structure has been regularly maintained.

The current cable break is considered a serious problem as it caused a girder of the 55.5-meter-long leading span to separate from the bridge, making the span sag.

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