Construction of the Zhanjiang section of the Lanhai Expressway begins, opening up the second expressway from the mainland to Hainan

China News Service, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, October 29 (Reporter Cai Minjie) Construction of the Zhanjiang-Lianjiang-Xuwen section of the G75 Lanzhou-Haikou National Expressway ("Lanhai Expressway Zhanjiang Section") started in Zhanjiang, Guangdong on the 29th, and the project is expected to be completed and open to traffic in 2030.

The Zhanjiang section of the Lanhai Expressway is the second expressway from the mainland to Hainan Island. It has a total length of approximately 152 kilometers and a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour. It is constructed to a two-way four-lane standard. There are 11 interchanges and 125 bridges along the entire line.

The route starts from Hengshan Town, Lianjiang City, connects with the Yuzhan Section of Lanhai Expressway and Hualian Expressway, passes south through Suixi County, Leizhou City, and ends at Maichen Town, Xuwen County.

The Zhanjiang section of Lanhai Expressway is located on the western coast of Leizhou Peninsula and is a typical coastal plain expressway. Frequent typhoons, heavy rainfall, high liquid limit soil and widespread soft foundation are all unfavorable factors for project construction.

To this end, the project has built Guangdong Province’s first full-chain smart construction site laboratory, carried out technical research on full prefabrication of culverts, ring prefabrication of box beams, and smart road construction, promoted smart iteration of each process and promoted integrated design of construction, management, and maintenance, so that “intelligent manufacturing” runs through the entire construction chain.

Tang Hao, deputy director of the Zhanjiang section of the Lanhai Expressway, said that the project integrates ecological landscape, regional culture and transportation to create a tourism corridor that connects the pastoral, historical and coastal scenery of the Leizhou Peninsula.

Green concepts will also be implemented throughout the entire construction process. The project route will be chosen to avoid mangroves, internationally important wetlands and coral reef national nature reserves. In terms of landscape presentation, regional elements such as the South China Sea coast, red soil, and ancient cities will also be presented in the overall design.

After the project is completed, it will improve the Qiongzhou Strait cross-sea transportation system and serve the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. Wang Anhuai, director of the Zhanjiang section of the Lanhai Expressway, said, "After the road is built, it will be more convenient to cross the sea. The development of Hainan Free Trade Port and Xuwen Port will be more supported, and the people of the peninsula will also benefit from it."

According to reports, the Haikou section of the G15 Shenhai Expressway, another national expressway leading to Hainan Island, will be opened to traffic at the end of 2022. The project route is 13.7 kilometers long and directly connects the major ports in Hainan Province to the highway network.