New expressway draws Chengdu closer to Xi'an

Updated: 2011-08-09 10:24

(chinadaily.com.cn)

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Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway, a main passageway of Sichuan province, will be completed and put into operation at the end of this year, the provincial department of transportation said on July 31. This will come in the wake of a smooth closure of Changxi Grand Bridge, a difficult point in the construction of the Dazhou–Shaanxi Expressway. When the expressway is open to traffic, Sichuan will have another high-speed channel for those who travel northward to neighboring provinces. It will take less than five hours to drive from Dazhou to Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi province. It will take only about nine hours to travel from Chengdu to Xi'an via Dazhou.

"Changxi Grand Bridge is one of the five continuous steel structure bridges of Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway. It stretches 707 meters long and stands 84 meters high at the main pier. It was the hardest to construct among the five bridges," said a senior executive of the Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway Company.

Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway is a section of the expressway connecting Arong banner of Inner Mongolia and Beihai of Guangxi, via Shaanxi, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. It was one of the eight main passageways planned for West China in the 12th Five-year Plan period. The section starts with Qingjing of Shaanxi province, at the border of Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, and ends at Xujiaba of Dazhou. It joins with the Xi'an-Ankang expressway in the north, and connects with Dazhou-Chongqing expressway in the south. It is 143.244 kilometers long, constructed with four lanes in two directions.

When Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway has transport service, Dazhou and Xi'an will be joined by an expressway that will take five hours to drive. Chengdu residents will have two options to go northward, either the Guangyuan-Qipanguan expressway to the Shaanxi-Sichuan border, or the Dazhou-Xi'an expressway, via Chengdu-Nanchong expressway, Nanchong-Guang'an-Lingshui expressway, Dazhou-Chengdu expressway, and Dazhou-Shaanxi expressway. then the for 460 kilometers drive from the expressway at the Shaanxi-Sichuan border to Ankang and then onto to Xi'an. It stretches for 910 kilometers and takes about nine hours to drive.

"With the completion of Dazhou-Shaanxi Expressway, the three most important cities of West China, which are Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi'an, will be connected with an express ring road," said a senior official of the provincial transportation department. The ring expressway, about 1,800 kilometers long, will become an important artery provincial connection in West China."