Smart expressway between Winter Olympic cities drives development

BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The distance between two cities cannot be shortened, but the travel time can.

That was the commitment made by the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Bid Committee in 2015, when Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou won the co-bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Their commitment has become a reality, as an expressway connecting Beijing's Yanqing District and Zhangjiakou's Chongli District, two venues for the event, has cut the travel time to merely one hour.

Zhao Shuang, a Beijing resident, said with the road, he can drive northward to beat the heat in summer and ski in winter.

"The expressway not only saves driving time but also gives me new ways to spend my weekend," said Zhao, 31.

The artery section of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, which opened to traffic in January 2020, has become an example of a green and smart infrastructure project.

Du Hejun, chief engineer of the expressway project from a construction company affiliated with the Beijing Capital Highway Development Group Co., Ltd., said the routing and the bridges and tunnels of the road were designed to minimize the environmental impact.

"We saved as much as construction land as possible and the tunnel gates have been all greened to go with the landscape," said Du. "These details have echoed the concept of 'green Winter Olympics'."

Full coverage of the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System services has been realized along the road, which is equipped with numerous cameras, radars and other road monitoring and sensing facilities. With these facilities, the road will allow autonomous driving with a speed of 80 km per hour, said Du.

The expressway has facilitated the development of Chongli, a formerly impoverished area some 220 km away from Beijing.

Local villager Xie Ting no longer has to toil in the fields and has become a skiing instructor.

"With my new job, I have a much higher income, as well as new friends from the neighboring cities of Beijing and Tianjin," said the 34-year-old.

Yu Jianyou, a manager in charge of the construction of the Hebei section of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, said construction of a branch line of the expressway is expected to be completed in June.

"The extension project will finally bring an expressway to Chongli's neighboring Chicheng County, which will bring more opportunities to the nearby mountainous villages," said Yu.