Major Hydropower Project is Progressing

Son La Dam, located on the Da River in northern Vietnam, will be the largest hydropower project in Southeast Asia when it is completed in 2012. Under construction since 2005, the roller-compacted-concrete dam will measure 139 meters tall, 900 m long and 4.8 million cu m in total volume. Installed capacity will be 2,400 MW. Over 5,000 workers were on-site by May 2009. Electricitie de Vietnam (EVN) is the owner. Colenco Power Engineering Ltd. (Switzerland) was responsible for design. SMEC International (Australia) is the lead construction supervision partner, along with Nippon Koei and J-Power of Japan. Song Da No. 9 (Vietnam), the RCC contractor, had placed 1.5 million cu m of RCC by February 2009, averaging over 110,000 cu m per month. RCC placement is expected to be completed by October 2010. The dam is expected to displace 91,000 households, and 62% had been relocated by April 2009. The project is expected to cost $2.4 billion.