Recently, the bidding results for investors in the Yellow River Bridge to Pandian Hub section of the Jinan Linqing Expressway have been officially announced. A super consortium consisting of seven companies won this large project with a total investment of 3.3425 billion yuan with an absolute advantage. This highway, with a total length of only 22.375 kilometers and a cost of over 149 million yuan per kilometer, demonstrates its engineering difficulty and strategic significance.

Central and local mixed ownership reform creates a golden combination

CCCC Investment Co., Ltd. leads the consortium, which includes CCCC First Highway Engineering Co., Ltd., CCCC Public Planning Institute, Shandong Zhixing Survey and Design Institute, Deda Transportation Construction Development Group, CCCC Investment Nanjing Company, and Dezhou Deda Investment Holding Group. Central enterprises are responsible for large capital and large technology, while local state-owned enterprises are responsible for down-to-earth communication, human resources, and logistics, forming an integrated industrial chain of investment, construction, and operation. This can ensure high standards of engineering promotion and seamless connection with the local government.

The gold content behind high cost

The starting point of the project is located at the west end of the Yellow River Bridge in Qihe County, and the endpoint is connected to the Jiliao Expressway in the north of Pandian Town. The huge investment is mainly directed towards three key difficulties: the construction of the West Bridgehead Interchange of the Yellow River Bridge, the Pandian Hub Project, and the complex connection with the existing expressway. The entire line is constructed to a high standard with six lanes in both directions, and the material and labor costs far exceed those of ordinary four lane highways. Every penny is invested in key nodes that open up the golden passage. Keywords: infrastructure news and information, highway infrastructure

The franchising model tests operational capabilities

The project adopts a franchise model, and the winning consortium needs to establish a project company responsible for the full lifecycle management from investment and financing, construction, operation, maintenance to final handover. In the next 20 to 30 years, the cross-linked composite will not only need to build roads but also pipelines, and obtain returns on investment by collecting tolls. This is a great test of both financial strength and operational capability, and the integrated lineup of investment, construction, and operation is tailor-made for this purpose. After the full line is completed, this expressway will become a major east-west transportation artery in the western Shandong region.Editor/Gao Xue