In August in Nanjing, the heat has not dissipated. In front of the large screen of the Jiangsu Provincial Expressway Operation and Management Center, a group of foreign engineers are closely watching the jumping traffic data of the road network. Some people take out their laptops to quickly record, while others quietly communicate in Russian - they come from the Kazakhstan Road Transport Research Institute and have been invited by the Jiangsu Communications Technology Group to come to Nanjing for exchange as part of the 2026 Engineering Capacity Building Plan. Engineers from Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia also participated in the training, while the goal of the Kazakh experts is very clear: to bring back China's methods of using artificial intelligence to manage roads, sensors to guard bridges, and new formulas to pave roads to Almaty and the grasslands of Central Asia.

AI manages road conditions

In the past, road maintenance relied more on post repair, repairing whatever was broken. The Jiangsu High Speed Network Dispatch Command Center demonstrated another set of logic to Harbin: the system collects real-time road conditions and traffic flow, uses intelligent models to predict congestion, automatically identify accidents, and coordinate the operation of the entire network. Don't just look at the curves on the big screen, behind it is embedding AI from a single point tool into the entire lifecycle of road assets.

Harbin expert Bekjan Baktegaliyev sighed at the training center, saying that before coming to China, he only heard about the impressive infrastructure and only truly understood the degree of integration between artificial intelligence and modern engineering after witnessing the dispatch system firsthand. For Kazakhstan, this capability hits the pain point - its TKU highways and other corridors have to withstand temperature differences of -30 ℃ to 45 ℃, and there are over 5000 cross-border trucks per day. It is too costly to repair them when they break down.

Sensor guarding bridge

Leaving the dispatch center, the delegation walked to the Yangtze River to study the structural health monitoring system carried by cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges. The sensors buried in the bridge continuously record vibration, deformation, and displacement, and the data is transmitted back to a predictive model, which can issue warnings before cracks or deformations evolve into major defects.

This lightweight monitoring approach is in line with the trend of cooperation between China and Kazakhstan. Sujiaoke had previously visited the Kazakhstan Highway Research Institute and the National Highway Company with a digital road asset plan. The lightweight deformation monitoring technology for bridges based on machine vision developed by the Chinese side can provide real-time alarms and trigger video captures of vehicle bridge main beam deflection, which perfectly matches Kazakhstan's urgent need for safe operation and maintenance of long bridges.

New material resistant to extreme cold

Besides digital technology, materials are another hard bone. Kazakhstan has successively visited the National Engineering Research Center for New Road Materials, the State Key Laboratory of Safety and Maintenance Technology for Long and Long Bridges and relevant teams of Southeast University, focusing on self repairing pavement, energy-saving pavement, and modified asphalt concrete for heavy traffic and harsh weather.

The actual working conditions in Kazakhstan pose challenges for materials, including saline alkali land, seasonal floods, and high-frequency crushing by international heavy-duty trucks. China Construction Xinjiang Engineering Group has improved its anti rutting ability by 30% using new modified asphalt in the KM685-760 section of TKU highway; After the expansion of the Caspian Asphalt Plant, the annual output has increased to 750000 tons, filling the gap of modified asphalt in Kazakhstan. During this trip to Nanjing, the Harbin side focused on self repairing, energy-saving and carbon reducing road surfaces as key inspection items, with the aim of finding a high level of durability protection for the country's highways.keywords:Engineering infrastructure

The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan has clarified that the training received in Nanjing will be used to develop the country's intelligent highway and infrastructure monitoring system, enhance road diagnostic capabilities, and promote research on more durable pavement materials. From a screen in the Jiangsu road network, to the bridge deck sensors in the suburbs of Almaty, to the modified asphalt layer on the grassland roads, the Chinese scheme is becoming a daily tool for road asset management in Central Asia along the the Belt and Road.Editor/Yang Meiling