4th Interactive Session: Dong Xuebo

Chinese version

Dong Xuebo
Director, MOC, China

Plan for China's Road Network in the 21st Century
Speech at the 3rd Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference
2005.9

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:

I'm very glad to have this opportunity to briefly introduce China road development tentative plan.

1. Development Strategies and Targets of China Highroad Communication in the First 20 Years of the New Century
   Since the 1990s, China road communication comes into the best and fastest developing era in history. During the period of 1998-2004, the investment of communication capital asserts has increased at a speed of 23% per year which occupied 10% of the total capital asserts and 4% of the Cross National Product. At present, China has built a large-scaled highroad system. The total mileage has reached 1.87million kilometers containing 34.3 thousand km of highway， and the number of the civil motorcars has reached more than 29 million. In 2004, the amount of passengers transported by highway reached about 16.2 billion and the mileage was about 874.8 billion kilometers, which respectively covered 92% and 54% of the total amount, while the cargo delivered by highway reached 12.5 billion tons which covers 73% of the total freightage.

In the first 20 years of this century, we will concentrate to perfect the highroad network in order to make our highroad communication safer, more convenient and more reliable; at the same time, also let road users feel more comfortable. In 2020, the total mileage of the China highroad network will reach 3 million kilometers, containing 85 thousand kilometers of the highway and 65 thousand kilometers of the second grade (and above) highroad. Highways will connect all the cities with the population of more than 200 thousand and will form the high-speed communication network which is so-called "capital directly reaching provincial capitals, provincial capitals connecting smoothly with each other, provincial capitals reaching towns and cities, and connecting with the main counties" in order to realize the round trip within 400-500 kilometers and the arrival of 800-1000kilometers trip daily. All the provinces of China will be mostly connected by the second-grade (and above) roads; the technical status of the roads in counties and countryside will be improved a lot; most roads from countries to villages will achieve the standards of high-grade or hyper high-grade roads; most villages will have regular buses and form the convenient passenger transport network in countryside. The safety of the highroad communication will be improved a lot; country resources will be utilized effectively; energy saving technique will be widely used; roads and nature will be more harmonious; roads communications realize the sustainable development.

2. The Plan of National Speedway Network
   In December 2004, Chinese government has approved "National Speedway Network Plan". National speedway network, the so called "7918" network, was composed of 7capital radiations, 9 south-north ordinates and 18 east-west lines, covering 85 thousand kilometers. Among all highroad networks in China, national speedway network is the highest-grand thoroughfare and the important proportion of the synthetic transport systems. This network will connect all China provincial capitals, big cities with the population of more than 500 thousand and the cities with the population of more than 200 thousand, totally occupying the population of more than 1 billion in China. It will realize that the people in eastern areas can get to the speedway within half an hour, while the central section within an hour, western areas within 2 hours, and enhance social flexibility. It connects the main touring cities and provides convenient route ways for tourists; strengthens the communications between economically developed areas, such as Yangtse Delta, Pearl River Delta, ect; forms the complete speedway network within three city circles and expedites region economic integration and the implementation of modernization in eastern areas; meanwhile, it greatly optimizes the structure of the highroad networks in the Midwest and northeast areas; accelerate the exploitation in westward and promote the economic growth in central and northeast areas. GDP of those regions will occupy more than 85% of the total national amount. It will promote the economic growth, bring along the development of related industries, expand the employment market; connect the ports of main countries, improve the transport qualifications of communication thoroughfares and accelerate the development of extroverted economy. It connects with all important traffic hinge, containing 50 railway hinges, 67 airline hinges, 50 waterway hinges and more than 140 high road hinges, which is good for various transport modes to develop their advantages and form the integrated transport thoroughfare and a complete transport system.

The construction of national speedway network will provide the safe, comfortable, and effective transport services, accelerate the harmonious development between country exploitation environment protection and energy saving, effectively support sustainable development of social economy. Under the condition of offering the same network passes capacity, the land used for building highways is only 40% of that for other highroads; the vehicle emissions on speedway is only 2/3 of other highroads, as well as the number of traffic accidents; the fuel consumption of vehicles reduces rapidly; as for the paroxysmal accidents, such as some disasters, it also offers the effective traffic insurance.

According to the basic figures, in the national speedway network which is planned to cover about 85 thousand kilometers, the course of development mileage which has been built occupies about 53% of the total mileage; another 40 thousand kilometers will be built in the future. Furthermore, national speedway network will not be the summation of all highroads. The regions will also plan to build other highways in order to connect with the national speedway and accelerate the region development.

In partnership with the China Road Transport Association (CRTA)

[ top ]