City kicks off construction of key transport projects
2025-01-04 19:01:14
By Chen Si, Lei Pengcheng also contributed to this article.
Yichang City held a ceremony to kick off a series of transport infrastructure projects on Thursday. The involved projects have a total investment value of 44.3 billion yuan (US$6.05 billion), including the Yichang West Expressway, a new section of the Shiyan-Yichang Expressway, and an extension of the Wuhan-Chongqing Expressway.
Yichang City held a ceremony to kick off a series of transport infrastructure projects on Thursday. The involved projects have a total investment value of 44.3 billion yuan (US$6.05 billion), including the Yichang West Expressway, a new section of the Shiyan-Yichang Expressway, and an extension of the Wuhan-Chongqing Expressway.
The opening ceremony of the major transportation infrastructure projects. Photo by Yan Xiaodong
On December 31, 2024, the Yichang-Fuling section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu High-speed Railway broke ground. It spans 471 kilometers and will link Yichang North Station with Fuling North Station in the Chongqing Municipality. The section has a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour and will take six years to complete.
On January 2, 2025, the 47-kilometer Yichang West Expressway began construction and will link up the Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway, the Jiangnan Fanba Expressway and the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway. It is designed with a speed limit of 100 km/h, with three lanes on each side. Once completed, the expressway will encircle Yichang City with a network of high-speed routes.
This project includes the Nanjinguan Yangtze River Highway Bridge, featuring a main span of 1,200 meters and four lanes in each direction.
The new section of the Shiyan-Yichang Expressway is 72 kilometers long and will connect Xingshan with Changyang with a speed limit of 80 km/h. It will create a cultural tourism corridor linking up Wudang Mountain, Shennongjia, the Three Gorges, the Qing River Gallery and Wulingyuan scenic areas.
The Yichang East Section of the Wuhan-Chongqing Expressway also began construction. The 53 kilometer-long 120 km/h expressway has three lanes in each direction. It will improve the express highway system between the Yichang-Jingzhou-Jingmen-Enshi metropolitan area and the Wuhan metropolitan area.
