On March 31, 2026, China Communications Construction Corporation announced that it had led a consortium consisting of China Communications Second Navigation Engineering Group, First Highway Engineering Group, Second Highway Engineering Group, and China Communications Road Construction to successfully win the bid for the second batch of civil engineering projects for the G3033 Kuitun Dushanzi Kuche Expressway, with a bid amount of approximately 12.5 billion yuan and a planned construction period of 2557 calendar days (approximately 7 years).

The main artery of north-south transportation in Tianshan Mountains

The G3033 line of Duku Expressway is a key interconnection project in the core area of the the Belt and Road in Xinjiang, with a total length of about 393.69 kilometers, running through the middle of Tianshan Mountains, connecting G30 Lianhuo Expressway in the north, G3012 Tuhe Expressway in the south, and passing through 7 counties and cities in 5 prefectures, namely Karamay, Tacheng, Yili, Bazhou, and Aksu. The winning bid for Section 2 is 60.98 kilometers long, starting from the Kuitun River Valley in Wusu City and ending in Gongnaisi Town, Hejing County. It is constructed with a standard of four lanes in both directions and a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The construction difficulty of this section is extremely high, including two 15 kilometer long tunnels, Kezhayi Tunnel and Yuximolege Tunnel, as well as bridge and culvert, roadbed, and service area projects.

Reshaping the North South Xinjiang Road Grid Bureau

According to the plan, it is expected that after its completion in 2033, it will form three major passages spanning the Tianshan Mountains, namely the east, middle, and west, together with the already opened G0711 Wuwei Expressway and the under construction G219 Zhaowen Highway. This will significantly enhance the accessibility efficiency between cities in northern and southern Xinjiang, improve the production, living, and emergency support conditions of the people in southern Xinjiang, and is of great significance for serving the country's westward opening-up strategy.

The preliminary work of the project started early, and the Public Planning Institute participated in the feasibility study and survey design of the project in 2017, and completed the feasibility report evaluation in 2024. In September 2025, the pilot project of Duku Expressway has started construction. The winning bid for the 12.5 billion yuan civil engineering section marks the entry of the main project into the comprehensive and large-scale implementation stage.Editor/Yang Meiling