Ministry of Transport： China’s highway infrastructure network ranks among the top in the world.
At the press conference held by the Ministry of Transport today (25th), Wang Tai, deputy director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, said that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the scale of China’s highway infrastructure network has been among the highest in the world, and the transportation service support capacity has been continuously improved, making it easier for people to travel, which has strongly supported economic and social development and the improvement of the country’s comprehensive strength.
The National Highway Network Plan released in 2013 proposes that by 2030, the total scale of China’s national highway network will be about 400,000 kilometers, of which the total scale of national highways and ordinary national highways will be 136,000 kilometers and 265,000 kilometers respectively. Through the efforts of all parties, by the end of 2021, 117,000 kilometers of national highways had been built, and the mileage of ordinary national highways was 257,700 kilometers, with the completion ratio reaching 85% and 96.5% respectively.
First, the network coverage is more extensive.At present, the expressway network with the national expressway as the main body has covered 98.8% of the cities with a population of more than 200,000 and prefecture-level administrative centers, connecting about 88% of the county-level administrative regions and about 95% of the population; Ordinary national highways basically cover administrative regions at or above the county level and border ports opened all the year round, effectively connecting important towns, industrial parks, transportation hubs and tourist attractions.
Second, the level of facilities has been effectively improved.By the end of 2021, the proportion of national highways with two-way six lanes and above will be 20.9%, and a large number of busy sections of national highways such as Beijing-Harbin, Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Shenhai and Shanghai-Kunming will be expanded and rebuilt, and the service guarantee capacity of national highway backbone channels will be further improved. The proportion of national ordinary national highways of Grade II and above is 79.6%, which is about 10% higher than that in 2013. More than 98% of the roads have been paved with asphalt or cement concrete, which is about 13% higher than that in 2013.
Third, major projects continued to advance.The world-famous Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was opened in October 2018, becoming a super cross-sea project integrating bridges, islands and tunnels. The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, which passes through the desert Gobi no man’s land, runs through the whole line, becoming another big passage in and out of Xinjiang after Lianhuo Expressway. Construction of Tianshan Shengli Tunnel on Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which is more than 22 kilometers, started, constantly setting a new world record for expressway tunnels.
The fourth is to achieve breakthroughs in technological innovation.The highway survey and design technology represented by digital map, geological remote sensing, computer-aided design and simulation, and Beidou system application has made continuous progress. The technology of highway construction in soft soil, loess, frozen soil and desert areas is constantly maturing and improving, and the structure and material technology of highway pavement have withstood the double test of time and heavy traffic. Breakthroughs have been made in technologies and equipment related to super-long-span bridges, super-long tunnels in mountainous areas, submarine immersed tunnels and large-diameter shield tunnels, and "China Road, China Bridge and China Tunnel" have become beautiful business cards.
(CCTV reporter Tang Ying)