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

  • Paying for the roads we drive
    February 6, 2018
    All around the world, vehicle numbers are growing fast and existing roads are seeing increasing congestion. This rapid increase in vehicle ownership is particularly acute in the developing world. Reductions in actual vehicle purchase costs have resulted in an explosion in vehicle numbers using the roads. In the past, governments were able to fund road expansion programmes from their own sources. The most ambitious of these came when the US Government commenced construction of the Interstate system in 1956,
  • ASECAP: maintenance mindshift turns spending into investment
    August 4, 2017
    With an estimated value of €8 trillion, the road infrastructure is probably the European Union’s largest single asset. It accounts for 83% of passenger journeys and more than 70% of freight movement. Despite this importance, global investment in roads - especially maintenance - has fallen, said Christophe Nicodeme, European Road Federation secretary general. There are grave consequences, noted Nicodeme in his opening keynote address to the recent Study and Information Days gathering, an annual event for mem
  • Bangladesh moves forward with US$735 million highways programme
    August 5, 2021
    A massive highways development programme is being planned in Bangladesh
  • Italian highway bridge and tunnel link
    June 20, 2022
    A project in Central Italy is seeing the construction of new tunnel stretches, a bridge and a viaduct. The work is being carried out on State Road 318 by BESIX in partnership with DONATI, close to Perugia in Umbria.