Workers and equipment have been added at all three Xingye Express Road construction sites to bring the project back on schedule for a 2022 opening.

Spanning 30 km (19 miles), Xingye Express Road runs from Tangle and Hagongda roads in Tangjiawan to the Fenghuang Mt Tunnel via a Y-shaped infrastructure. It then passes Dajingshan Community Park, goes beneath Meihua and Xingye roads and crosses the Shijing Mt Tunnel. Finally, the road bridges Bailian Road and ends at the Bureau of Land & Resources in Jida.

The 17-km (11-mile) north section starts from Xingye Road in Xiangzhou District and runs beneath Meihua Road and Fenghuang Mt via tunnels to reach urban areas in Tangjiawan. The west tunnel route pass over East Jintang Road to merge into Hagongda Road, while the east tunnel section will pass under Jishan Village and the Zhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University to the Gangwan Avenue-Tangle Road intersection.

Dajing Mt Tunnel of the north section will be broken through in April 2021 now that 63 percent of the work has been completed through the joint efforts of more than 1,200 Guangdong TEC workers, according to project manager Yue Kun.

Tunnel being excavated beneath intersection of Xingye and Shanchang roads [Photo by Chen Xinnian / Guanhai App]

The 4.79-km (3-mile) south section starts from Jiuzhou Avenue-Jianye 1st Road intersection in Jida. It then passes over Bailian Road via a bridge, through a new Banzhang Mt tunnel, along 1st Xiangning Street, Huwan, and Xingye roads, and finally beneath Ningxi, Renmin, and Yinhua roads to connect with the north section.

Construction of the south section is undertaken by Huafa Group. The tunnel beneath East Renmin Road in New Xiangzhou will open by late July and the Shijing Mt Tunnel in Jida will be ready by the end of 2022.

The Yingbin Road feeder goes from the Meihua-Yingbin road intersection, passes through Shixi Park west of the Guyuan Museum of Art via a tunnel and crosses over Dajingshan Community Park via an overpass, and goes through Fenghuang Mt by tunnel before accessing the north section.

Construction of the feeder will take just more than the 600 days previously scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and complex surrounding environment, according to Huang Wenwei, chief engineer of the section of China Railway 7th Group. The delivery date, he added, will be consistent with the opening of the north section.

The expressway is expected to ease north-south downtown traffic and improve access to both the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Without traffic lights, motorists from Jiuzhou Avenue will access Ningxi in three minutes, Meihua Road in five minutes, and Tangjiawan in 16 minutes.