Project Overview

This project is located in Shaanxi Province, a relatively impoverished region in the interior of China that is in transition from a predominantly agricultural economy to a mixed industrial/agrarian economy.

The project involved construction of a four-lane, 176 kilometer controlled access toll expressway from Yumenkou to Yanliang. The expressway travels across flat farmland terrain and the Loess Plateau, with deep gullies. The project provided consulting services and training to enhance construction quality, road safety, and bridge design, and project monitoring and evaluation. The expressway will become the main transportation corridor in the Weinan Prefecture and will be part of the National Trunk Highway System from Inner Mongolia to the Vietnam border. A second phase of the project involved a four kilometer bridge over the Yellow River and extension of the expressway to the northeast through Shaanxi Province to Houma, a distance of 60 kilometers.

The project included 36 major bridges, 13 interchanges with toll collection stations, 51 crossings, and 13.5 kilometers of connecting roads. The project required upgrading 627 kilometers of provincial and county roads and  improvements to roads in poor townships. International Development Planners led the project.

CHS Role

For this Asian Development Bank-funded bank-grade investment project, CHS Consulting Group was responsible for transportation planning analysis including travel demand forecasting, cost benefit analysis, and the transportation management plan.