The transportation infrastructure sector in Henan Province has made significant progress - the Sanmenxia to Luoning Expressway franchise project with a total investment of 10.751 billion yuan has been officially awarded. Led by China Railway Fifth Bureau Group Co., Ltd., a consortium consisting of several strong enterprises such as China Railway Capital, China Railway Transportation Investment, and Henan Construction Group, has stood out in the fierce market competition and will be fully responsible for the investment, construction, and operation of this 64.37 kilometer expressway for the next few decades.

Challenging the road network links in complex terrains

This newly planned expressway is a key artery connecting the two important cities in western Henan. The starting point is located in Sanmenxia City, connecting to the existing Lianhuo Expressway. After passing through Sanmenxia Hubin District and Shanzhou District in a southeast direction, it enters Luoning County, Luoyang City, and finally connects with the Luolu Expressway. Although the total length is about 64 kilometers, the project has complex terrain and a high bridge tunnel ratio. The engineering data reflects its construction difficulty: 61 bridges with a total length of 25317 meters need to be built along the entire line, including 3 super large bridges; It also includes a 420 meter long tunnel, 105 culverts, and 7 interchanges. The project adopts a two-way four lane standard, with a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour and a planned total construction period of 3.5 years. Its completion will directly fill the gap in the regional road network and significantly shorten the temporal and spatial distance between Sanmenxia and Luoyang.

Exploration of fully market-oriented franchising

The most notable feature of this project is its thoroughly market-oriented operational model. Of the total investment of the project, only 20% (approximately 2.15 billion yuan) is contributed by the winning consortium in the form of capital, while the remaining 80% or more of the funds need to be resolved through market financing. More importantly, local governments do not provide any investment or operational subsidies during the franchise period, and enterprises are fully responsible for their own profits and losses. This "self financing, self construction, self operation, and self risk bearing" model has become the mainstream trend of current large-scale infrastructure projects. It not only alleviates local financial pressure, but also forces the winning bidder to enhance the full chain capability and efficiency from investment and financing, engineering construction to long-term operation and management, in order to achieve sustainable returns on the project. Keywords: Traffic Information Network, Latest Traffic News

Drive regional development and industry transformation

The construction of this expressway is expected to have a profound economic and social impact on the western Henan region. It can not only optimize regional transportation and logistics conditions, promote the development of characteristic resources along the route and rural revitalization, but also inject new impetus into the industrial synergy and cultural tourism integration between Sanmenxia and Luoyang. From an industry perspective, this project is a typical example of the transformation of infrastructure investment models. The consortium, with China Railway Fifth Bureau as the core, combines multiple advantages such as construction, capital, and localization, demonstrating the comprehensive capabilities required to undertake complex large-scale projects. The promotion and future operation of this project is not only about physically connecting two cities, but also exploring feasible paths for social capital to deeply participate in major infrastructure construction at the practical level, providing valuable market-oriented operation experience for similar projects.Editor/Gao Xue