Skip to main content

China moves on concrete highway plan

The authorities in China are now acting on plans announced last year to build a proportion of the country's new highway network from concrete. The new 84km highway connecting Xingtai in Hebei and Fenyang in Shanxi will be constructed with a concrete surface. The project is due for completion in mid 2013 and is expected to cost some US$1.37 billion to construct. This development is of note as the country has built most of its most recently constructed highways using asphalt technology.
March 6, 2012 Read time: 1 min
The authorities in China are now acting on plans announced last year to build a proportion of the country's new highway network from concrete. The new 84km highway connecting Xingtai in Hebei and Fenyang in Shanxi will be constructed with a concrete surface. The project is due for completion in mid 2013 and is expected to cost some US$1.37 billion to construct. This development is of note as the country has built most of its most recently constructed highways using asphalt technology. Concrete roads were built in China in the past but earlier generation technologies and construction methods were used and the roadway performance did not meet expectations. Only in the last few years have the Chinese authorities reconsidered the use of concrete road construction techniques, employing modern technology and setting targets to build a percentage of the new highway network from concrete.

Related Content

  • Costa Rica road projects moving forward - slowly
    July 18, 2017
    Costa Rica is moving ahead with a series of major road projects, but progress is proving slower than anticipated or desired. The Costa Rica Government is struggling to achieve satisfactory progress with its overall road improvement programme. So far the key focus has been on maintaining existing links rather than building and improving road connections. The country’s National Laboratory for Structural Material and Models (Lanamme) has produced a report revealing that 85% of the national roads are in accepta
  • Chinese highway project under construction
    February 9, 2017
    China’s infrastructure expansion programme is in the process of transforming the country. Meanwhile its construction market is the largest in the world, comprising around 25% of the country’s US$11 trillion economy. However, slowing domestic growth in recent years has encouraged the Chinese Government to invest in key infrastructure projects in a bid to improve the country’s transport connections.
  • Rebuilding a Chinese highway using RAP
    February 22, 2019
    A Chinese contractor has opted to use RAP in delivering quality roadways at lower cost. The firm utilised an ABA UniBatch asphalt plant from Ammann to achieve this. The Chinese authorities are at present keen to increase the use of RAP in road building, in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of construction projects. However for this to be carried out, the high RAP-content mix must meet high quality standards. Shandong Binzhou Road Construction Corp (SBRCC) has carried out a number of high-profil
  • Surface quality a key trend in asphalt paving
    March 7, 2012
    Improved surface quality and improved machine design are key trends in the asphalt paving sector, Mike Woof reports There is a big difference in asphalt paving techniques in North America and Europe. In North America, the need to construct long stretches of highway quickly resulted in wide pavers offering high throughput capacity, with compaction equipment then being used to achieve the required density of the various courses. In Europe's highway construction projects, distances tend to be shorter and contr