The dual four-lane Shixi Tunnel was broken through in late October and its 760-m (half-mile) west part was made accessible to vehicles.

The tunnel forms part of the 1,700-m (1-mile) Yingbin feeder of Xingye Express Road. The road section extends from the Meihua-North Yingbin intersection, tunnels beneath Xiangshan Lake Park, bridges Dajingshan Community Park, and tunnels Fenghuang Mt before merging with the north section of Xingye Express Road.

Shixi Tunnel [Photo by Zhong Fan / Zhuhai Daily]

Hoisting of steel-concrete composite beams along the 450-m (492-yd) overpass between the Dajingshan and Shixi tunnels is to be completed before Spring Festival and the feeder will be ready by the end of next year, according to Li Baojun, project manager.

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 structure. It passes Dajingshan Community Park, dips beneath Meihua, Xingye, Yinhua, Renmin, and Ningxi roads, and then accesses Shijing Mt Tunnel.

In the south, the road will cross Bailian Road and Jiuzhou Avenue via an overpass to First Jianye Road and terminate at the Bureau of Land & Resources in Jida. It is designed to facilitate north-south downtown traffic and improve access to both the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Travel time from Tangjiawan to Jida will be cut to 10 minutes when it opens to traffic in 2022.

By the end of October, 90 percent of the work on the road's Yingbin feeder, 75 percent of the north section, and 29 percent of the south section had been completed.