CIRCULAR

ON TRAFFIC CIRCULATION AND COLLISION AVOIDANCE ON INLAND WATERWAYS

Pursuant to the Law on Inland Waterway Transport dated June 24, 2004;

Pursuant to Decree No. 21/2005/ND-CP dated March 1, 2005 of  Government on elaborating to Law on Inland Waterway Transport;

Pursuant to Decree No. 51/2008/ND-CP dated April 22, 2008 of the Government on functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of Ministry of Transport;

Minister of Transport prescribes traffic circulation and collision avoidance on inland waterways as follows:

Chapter 1.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

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1. This Circular provides for traffic circulation and collision avoidance on inland waterways.

2. This Circular applies to domestic and foreign organizations and individuals related to traffic circulation and collision avoidance on inland waterways.

Article 2. Term interpretation

In this Circular, terms below are construed as follows:

1. “traffic circulation” refers to act of guiding movement of watercrafts in disadvantaged situations to enforce safety and restrict traffic congestion.

2. “collision avoidance” refers to implementation of technical solutions to prevent incidents that involve collision with structures.

3. “evacuation” refers to removal of vehicles and assets from danger or aid (including towing, pulling) for vehicles in danger implemented via contracts or agreements on evacuation between organizations and individuals providing evacuation and organizations and individuals requesting evacuation.

4. “rescue” refers to removal of victims of an accident from life-threatening elements, including initial medical aid and other measures to bring the victims to a safe location.

Article 3. Cases that require traffic circulation and collision avoidance

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2. Conduct traffic circulation and collision avoidance when repairing, constructing on inland waterways, extracting resources, dredging or removing obstacles that affect safety of water traffic.

3. Conduct irregular traffic circulation and collision avoidance when any factor that affects safety of waterway structures and waterway traffic occurs, including:

a) Waterway traffic incidents or accidents;

b) Sections of waterways that have lower water level or dimensions unsatisfactory to respective technical levels;

c) Natural disaster prevention, sports activities, festivals, national security and defense training or enforcement procedures;

d) At request of competent authorities.

4. Conduct traffic circulation in combination with collision avoidance for bridges and culverts whose vertical and horizontal clearance are lower than values specified under respective technical levels during rain seasons and for areas with unstable current with surface water velocity of ≥ 5 meters/second.

Article 4. Methods of traffic circulation and collision avoidance

Depending on limited conditions of inland waterways, traffic circulation and collision avoidance shall be conducted by following appropriate measures:

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2. By 1 circulation station when width of limited navigation channel equals at most 2/3 of the channel width and the length of limited channel equals more than 200 meters and less than 500 meters;

3. By 2 circulation stations when:

a) Width of limited navigation channels equals at most 2/3 of channel width and length of limited navigation channels equals at least 500 meters;

b) Width of limited navigation channel equals at most 2/3 of channel width and limited clearance of overhead structures equals at most 2/3 of structure clearance as per the law.

4. By 2 circulation stations and 1 additional central circulation station in case of constructing work items situated in navigation channels for longer than 5 days.

Chapter 2.

DETAILS AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS OF TRAFFIC CIRCULATION AND COLLISION AVOIDANCE

Article 5. Details of traffic circulation

1. Deploy vehicles, equipment, personnel and signaling systems according to methods approved by competent authorities.

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3. Guide watercrafts to travel, stop and anchor according to publicized regulations in areas subject to traffic circulation.

4. Suppress, interfere and deal with vehicles violating the regulations and causing traffic unsafe and disorder in circulated areas.

5. Rescue and evacuate in case of incidents, accidents and irregular scenarios that may lead to loss of safety in circulated areas.

6. Inform vehicles travelling through circulated areas about the regulations.

7. Record and report as per the law.

Article 6. Technical requirements of traffic circulation

1. Traffic circulation station must be able to operate with ease, has good coverage and unobstructed vision and is placed in following positions:

a) Circulation stations for traffic heading towards the upper course must be placed no more than 800 meters away from circulated areas;

b) Circulation stations for traffic heading towards the lower course must be placed no more than 500 meters away from circulated areas;

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2. Traffic circulation signs:

a) Land signs in a traffic circulation station include:

- No parking sign:

1 sign

- Parking allowed sign:

1 sign

- Movement control sign:

1 set

- Unexpected danger sign:

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- No passing sign:

1 sign

- Limited vertical clearance sign:

1 sign

- Limited depth sign:

1 sign

- Limited width sign:

1 sign

- Towage regulation sign:

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- No U-turn sign:

1 sign

b) Water signs:

- If circulated areas are situated entirely within vicinity of a channel, utilize at least 4 buoys to restrict navigation channels;

- If circulated areas are situated on one side of a channel, utilize at least 2 buoys to restrict the waters or 2 buoys to restrict the navigation channel;

c) Position of signs shall be adjusted to match actual conditions of channels to guide vehicles to pass the areas safely:

- Information signs (consisting of unexpected danger signs, no passing signs, limited vertical clearance signs, limited depth signs, towage regulation signs, no parking signs, no U-turn signs and limited width signs) shall be attached to poles which are situated on land in stations in the upper or lower course. The first sign must be at least 500 meters away from circulated areas to the upper course and lower course;

- Parking allowed signs shall be located on land in the middle of the waters where vehicles are allowed to park while waiting for channels to open (use buoys for restricting waters to locate the signs if locating the signs on land is not possible);

- Movement control signs and signal lights shall be attached to poles which are situated in stations in the upper course and lower course;

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- Poles carrying information signs must be situated at least 5 meters away from each other;

- With respect to transport routes that operate around the clock, signs must have signal lights as per the law.

3. Vehicles and personnel for traffic circulation

a) In case of vehicles: Each station must have at least 1 vessel with capacity of 33-90 horsepower (CV) and at least 1 speedboat with capacity of 25-40 horsepower (CV);

b) In case of personnel:

- Planning of personnel on vehicles shall comply with applicable regulations and law.

- Personnel for traffic circulation shall be assigned as follows (at least):

+ Circulation commander (rank 4-5); 1 person/shift;

+ Standby employees in each station (rank 3-5): 2 people/shift;

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c) Other tools and equipment:

Other fundamental tools and equipment for 1 station include:

- Sign:

01 piece;

- Megaphone:

1 set;

- Signaling flags:

2 pieces;

- Medicine cabinets:

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- Walkie-talkies (telephone):

1 set;

- Flashlight:

03 pieces;

- Emergency medical aids:

satisfactory to regulations and law;

- Water level gauge:

01 piece;

- Binocular:

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Article 7. Details of collision avoidance

1. Deploy standing vehicles, equipment and personnel to avoid collision, rescue and evacuate according to approved plans.

2. Evacuate and assist vehicles incapable of passing areas regularly subject to collision avoidance at request or upon potential risks of loss of safety.

3. Rescue or cooperate with other forces in rescuing upon incidents or accidents.

4. Inform passing vehicles about locations subject to regular collision avoidance, methods, contact details and functions of standing stations for collision avoidance, evacuation and rescue.

5. Record and report as per the law.

Article 8. Technical requirements of collision avoidance

1. Standing stations for collision avoidance

a) Standing stations for collision avoidance shall be situated on the same side as stations for traffic circulation in the upper course.

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2. Standing signals for collision avoidance

a) In case of standing collision avoidance in combination with traffic circulation, utilize present signaling systems used for traffic circulation.

b) In case of independent collision avoidance, signaling systems shall be adjusted depending on practical conditions.

- Information signs shall be mounted on poles outside of standing stations for collision avoidance. The first signs shall be located no more than 800 meters away (in the upper course) and 500 meters away (in the lower course) of standing stations;

- Parking allowed signs shall be installed on land in the middle of the waters for vehicles to park while waiting to cross the channels (if installation on land is not possible, use buoys for limiting the waters to install);

- Order of sign installation is as follows: instruction signs, prohibition signs, restriction signs and towage regulation signs.

3. Standing vehicles and personnel for collision avoidance

a) Vehicle:

- Each standing station must have at least 1 vessel with capacity of 150 - 250 horsepower (CV) and at least 1 speedboat with capacity of 25 - 40 horsepower (CV);

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b) Personnel on vehicles and equipment:

Planning of personnel on vehicles and equipment shall conform to applicable regulations and law, in which fundamental standing personnel for collision avoidance shall be as follows:

- Standing commander for collision avoidance (rank 4-5): 1 person/shift;

- Standing employee for collision avoidance (rank 3): 3 people/shift; 

c) Other fundamental tools and equipment for 1 station include:

- Standing station sign:

01 piece;

- Megaphone:

1 set/vehicle;

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2 pieces/vehicle;

- Medicine cabinets:

1 piece;

- Walkie-talkies (telephone):

1 set/vehicle;

- Flashlight:

3 pieces/vehicle;

- Emergency medical aids:

satisfactory to regulations and law;

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01 piece.

Article 9. Cooperation in rectifying consequences in case of sunken vehicles

1. All organizations and individuals operating in inland waterway traffic sector must actively cooperate in rectifying consequences in case of sunken vehicles to minimize impact of the accidents and rapidly recover inland waterway traffic.

2. Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall direct, examine and encourage rectification of consequences when vehicles are sunken on national inland waterway.

3. Departments of Transport shall direct, examine and encourage rectification of consequences when vehicles are sunken on local inland waterway.

4. Organizations and individuals owning sunken vehicles are responsible for dredging vehicles and dispose obstacles caused by the incidents within the deadline regulated by inland waterway management bodies; if said organizations and individuals fail to do so before the deadline, inland waterway management bodies shall dredge and dispose the obstacles.

5. Organizations and individuals owning sunken vehicles must incur all expenditure on dredging and disposing obstacles created by the sunken vehicles.

6. While rectifying consequences of sunken vehicles, inland waterway bodies are responsible for regularly reporting directly to superior managing bodies and to Ministry of Transport.

Chapter 3.

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Article 10. Entitlement for approval

1. In case of national inland waterway:

a) On a yearly basis, based on capacity of inland waterway managing enterprises and bodies, Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall request Ministry of Transport to approve methods and assign entities to conduct traffic circulation in combination with collision avoidance on inland waterway for irregular cases such as natural disaster prevention and national security and defense.

b) Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall consider regular traffic circulation methods.

c) Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall consider and approve traffic circulation methods in case of construction and repair.

2. In case of local inland waterway:

Departments of Transport shall consider, approve methods and assign entities to conduct regular traffic circulation, traffic circulation in combination with collision avoidance in case of irregular implementation due to natural disaster prevention, national security and defense and construction, repair.

Article 11. Examination and supervision

1. Steering Committee for Storm prevention, Search and Rescue of Ministry of Transport is responsible for encouraging and directing traffic circulation in combination with collision avoidance in raining seasons and for national defense and security purposes.

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3. Department of Transport is responsible for conducting periodic, irregular inspection and monitoring traffic circulation and collision avoidance on local inland waterway.

Article 12. Funding sources for traffic circulation and collision avoidance

1. With respect to regular traffic circulation:

a) Regular traffic circulation on national inland waterway shall utilize funding sources for managing and maintaining national inland waterway guaranteed by central government budget.

b) Regular traffic circulation on local inland waterway shall utilize funding sources for managing and maintaining local inland waterway guaranteed by local government budget.

2. With respect to traffic circulation and collision avoidance due to construction, repair or irregular implementation thereof: Organizations and individuals commencing constructions or creating obstacles on inland waterway shall be responsible for paying expenses to organizations and individuals directly participating in traffic circulation and collision avoidance, except for cases of obstacles whose owners are unknown.

3. Irregular traffic circulation in combination with collision avoidance to prevent natural disaster shall utilize annual funding sources for flood prevention provided by the government.

Chapter 4.

IMPLEMENTATION

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This Circular comes into force after 45 days from the date of signing.

Article 14. Organization for implementation

1. Director of Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration and Directors of Departments of Transports are responsible for publicizing and guiding affiliated entities, organizations and individuals participating in traffic circulation and collision avoidance on inland waterway to implement this Circular.

2. Department of Traffic Safety shall take charge and cooperate with Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration and relevant agencies in organizing inspection of this Circular.

3. Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Ministry for consideration./.

MINISTER




Ho Nghia Dung