The inaugural northbound train of the 'Northbound Freight Service' for transporting grain from northern to southern China has departed

Accelerating the construction of 43 provincial-level key transportation projects and ensuring 356 kilometers of new expressways open to traffic. On January 10, Shudao Group held its 2026 work conference, revealing that the company aims to complete highway and railway investments totaling RMB 150 billion this year.

As the "main force" behind Sichuan's transportation infrastructure development, Shudao Group is intensifying efforts to tackle the most challenging projects. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), the group completed nearly RMB 800 billion in transportation investments, delivering over 2,000 kilometers of expressways and more than 1,800 kilometers of railways. On January 9, the Jinkouhe–Xichang Expressway's critical control project—the Yuexi Tunnel—successfully commenced excavation at its entrance portal, marking the full-scale launch of construction on the province's longest expressway tunnel under construction. This expressway will serve as the third corridor connecting Chengdu to the Daliangshan region and, upon completion, will end the history of Ganluo, Yuexi, and Xide counties having no expressway access. The work conference confirmed that the group will push for substantive commencement of the Jinxi Expressway and accelerate progress on 43 provincial-level priority projects, including the Langchuan Expressway, Xinyi Expressway, Chengdu–Ya'an Expressway expansion, western section of the Dazhou Ring Expressway, and the Suining–Neijiang Railway. Additionally, the group will ensure the completion and opening to traffic of 356 kilometers of projects, including the Yibin–Panzhihua Expressway, Zhenba–Guangyuan Expressway, Jiuzhaigou–Maerkang Expressway, and the Guangyuan–Mianyang Expressway expansion. Several of these expressways partially opened in 2025, and their full completion will further eliminate bottlenecks and fill gaps in the regional road network.

Excavation work has commenced on the Yuexi Tunnel

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), the group plans to expand its presence in ethnic minority regions, former revolutionary base areas, high-altitude zones, and the Qinba Mountains, aiming to build 3,000 kilometers of expressways and 2,000 kilometers of railways to help Sichuan achieve the vision of 'Clear Shudao'—a smooth and efficient transportation network across the historic 'Shu Roads'.

"Smart Cloud Warehouse" Cloud Control Center

Sichuan Province currently boasts an expressway network exceeding 11,000 kilometers and a railway network surpassing 7,000 kilometers. Shudao Group has set a service goal of 'smooth, safe, comfortable, and beautiful' operations and is advancing infrastructure upgrades and digital-intelligent transformation across its managed expressways. In October 2025, the group's self-developed zonal 'Smart Cloud Toll Plaza' system was deployed at 12 toll stations and 91 lanes across the Ronglu, Luyong, Xugu, and Xuwei expressways, enabling automatic license plate recognition and voice-guided self-service card issuance and payment, significantly improving traffic efficiency. In 2026, the group will roll out an overall implementation plan for the 'Smart Cloud Toll Plaza' initiative and progressively upgrade 100 toll stations in phases. On the railway front, Shudao Group will continue expanding multimodal rail-water transport services, including the 'Yangtze River Train', 'Northbound Train', and 'Greater Bay Area Train', while promoting integrated multimodal logistics under the 'single-ticket', 'single-document', and 'single-container' systems to reduce overall railway logistics costs for society.

【本文部分内容由AI辅助生成，特此声明。The author(s) generated part of the content in this work with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), which is hereby declared.】