Construction of a new expressway linking Jiangmen to Zhuhai Special Economic Zone formally began yesterday.
The 53.7-kilometre-long expressway will connect to the planned Zhuhai-Macao-Hong Kong cross-sea bridge, furthering the economic ties between Hong Kong, Macao and the western part of the Pearl River Delta in the coming years.
The four-lane expressway, which allows for speeds of up to 120 kilometres an hour, starts from Sichun in Jiangmen's Jianghai District and ends in Zhuhai's Doumen District. It will cost more than 2.48 billion yuan (US$298.8 million).
The project is expected to be open to traffic in October, 2005. Twenty-two small- and mid-sized bridges will be constructed for the project, which will shorten travel time from Jiangment to Zhuhai by half an hour from the current two hours.
The new expressway will also serve Zhuhai Airport, and link with the Guangzhou-Wuzhou Expressway in the north and the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang Expressway in the south.
Xian Wen, executive vice-mayor of Zhuhai, said the expressway would further boost economic ties between Zhuhai and the cities in the western part of the Pearl River Delta and South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Xian said Zhuhai, which borders Macao, would also build two new 50,000-ton container terminals next year.
Xian said the city would invest more than 11 billion yuan (US$1.33 billion) before the end of 2005 to further improve its infrastructure facilities such as the Zhuhai-Guangzhou High Speed Railway.
And infrastructure investment will reach more than 30 billion yuan (US$3.61 billion) in the next seven to eight years, Xian said.