Recently, the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Transportation of Hebei Province issued an announcement to invite public bidding for the preliminary survey and design of a number of national and provincial key highway construction projects, including the reconstruction and expansion of three highway sections in Hebei, including the Langzhuo Section of the Ring Expressway in the capital region and Hengde Expressway, with a total investment of about 17.8 billion yuan.

According to the bidding information of technical consulting service for preliminary design approval of national key highway construction projects (the third batch in 2022) released by the Ministry of Transport, the scope of this bidding includes 23 engineering projects, which are divided into 2 contract categories and 11 contract sections. Among the four projects of Class II Contract Section 9, two are reconstruction and expansion projects, namely, the reconstruction and expansion of Langfang Zhuozhou Section of G95 Capital Region Ring Expressway and the reconstruction and expansion of Hebei Cangzhou Section of G18 Rongwu Expressway.

Among them, the reconstruction and expansion project of Langfang Zhuozhou section of G95 ring expressway in the capital region is about 58km long. The whole line adopts the standard of 8-lane expressway, and the design speed is 120km/h. There are 5 interchanges in the whole line, with bridges accounting for about 10%, and no tunnel works. The project will be reconstructed and expanded mainly by bilateral widening. The project is mainly located in the coastal plain area, with simple construction conditions. The estimated total investment of the project is about 8.6 billion yuan.

The reconstruction and expansion project of Hebei Cangzhou Section of G18 Rongwu Expressway is about 69km long. The whole line adopts the standard of 6-lane expressway and the design speed is 120km/h. There are 5 interchanges in the whole line, with bridges accounting for about 10%, and no tunnel works. The project will be reconstructed and expanded mainly by bilateral widening. The project is mainly located in the coastal plain area, with simple construction conditions. The estimated total investment of the project is about 4.7 billion yuan.

In addition, the Department of Transportation of Hebei Province recently announced that the preliminary survey and design of the reconstruction and expansion project of Hengshui Dezhou Expressway will be subject to public bidding.

The bidding information shows that the construction site of Hengde Expressway Project is Hengshui City. The line starts from the interchange of Dengjiazhuang Hub and ends at the South Canal at the boundary between Hebei and Shandong, with a total length of about 49.1km. The project will be widened on both sides and expanded into a two-way 6-lane road. The design speed of the main line is 120km/h, and the subgrade width is 34.5m.

The whole line will be reconstructed into 6 interchanges, including 2 newly-built interchanges, 4 reconstructed interchanges, 1 reconstructed service area, 5 newly-built ramp toll stations, including 2 newly-built interchanges, 3 reconstructed interchanges and 1 new connecting line.

At the beginning of 2022, the Department of Transportation of Hebei Province issued the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" for Highway Development in Hebei Province, in which the main task was to focus on regional coordinated development, build an interconnected transportation network, and promote balanced and coordinated development of all regions. In order to strengthen the connection with the surrounding five provinces, several key highway projects will be constructed, including the reconstruction and expansion of Cangzhou Section of Rongwu Expressway, the reconstruction and expansion of Langzhuo Section of Ring Expressway in the capital area into national expressway projects, and the reconstruction and expansion of Hengde Expressway into provincial expressway projects.

Later, Hengshui Municipal People's Government issued the Fourteenth Five Year Plan for the Development of Hengshui's Comprehensive Transportation System, which also mentioned that Hengshui will smooth the national and provincial comprehensive transportation channels based on railways and highways and assisted by aviation, so as to further enhance Hengshui's status as a node city.

To this end, the plan is clear, to speed up construction, promote the Hengshui section of Handan Port Expressway, the reconstruction and expansion of Hengde Expressway, Shiheng Expressway, Jingde Expressway and other key projects. According to the clearly planned construction tasks, Hengshui will complete the reconstruction and expansion of Hengde Expressway during the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" period, with a total investment of about 4.5 billion yuan. Editor/Zhao E