Sichuan province in southwest People’s Republic of China (PRC) is in a basin and surrounded by mountains. Most of its population is on the flat, fertile plains in the central and eastern areas. Its landlocked nature has gradually eased with the ongoing development of transport infrastructure on the Yangtze River, railway lines, and several major highway corridors. Despite considerable investment, its road network until project appraisal in 2006 had remained inadequate and did not provide efficient access to large parts of the province. Limited road links with neighboring provinces and local economic centers constrained traffic, and a still-underdeveloped transport network slowed economic growth.
To help address the situation, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $200 million loan for the project, Eastern Sichuan Roads Development, in July 2007. The project’s principal objective was to develop an integrated road transport system that supports sustainable economic growth in Sichuan Province. Its specific aims were to (i) reduce traffic accidents and vehicle operating costs; (ii) improve access between Chongqing and Xi’an, two major growth centers in western PRC; (iii) provide additional transport capacity to accommodate growing traffic volume; and (iv) provide improved access to markets and social services in a poor area.
At appraisal, the project had four components: (i) construction of a 143 kilometer (km), four-lane, access-controlled toll expressway from Dazhou to Wanyuan, including access roads, interchanges with toll stations, tunnels, bridges, administrative stations, and service areas; (ii) upgrading of 430 km of local roads to improve access to poor remote areas; (iii) promoting corporate governance by separating expressway construction and operations from the provincial government; and (iv) building capacity in project management, quality control, road safety, and monitoring and evaluation.
At completion, the project built a 143.2 km expressway, including a 3.6 km improved section that uses existing right-of-way, that accords with international prevailing practices. Interchanges were well designed to suit the narrow available terrain and provided convenient linkages with local roads. Each service area assigned a zone for local farmers to sell local products to passengers and road users. Along the expressway, there are 355 drainage culverts and 40 underpasses for farmers and tractors. Plantation was integrated with the natural terrain. Tunnels were well constructed and provided with adequate lighting, traffic signal, ventilation, and safety facilities. Traffic safety measures, including sign boards, guardrails, and rumble strips, were adequate and functional. Guardrails cover the whole expressway and additional strengthened guardrails were installed along large structures and higher embankments.
To ensure that the project’s economic and social benefits were adequately extended to those in the project influence areas, 40 local roads were built, of which, 10 access roads with a total length of 27.6 km were partially financed by ADB, while the rest were financed by the government. All the completed roads are paved and opened to traffic together with the project expressway. The municipal government of Chongqing, a neighbor province, built an unplanned 66 km link road in 2013 to connect Chengkou county and the Chongqing urban area via the project expressway. This halved the travel time between Chengkou and Chongqing to 4 hours. The link road also demonstrated that a trunk road supplemented with local roads will enable more project benefits to be directly spread not only in project areas in Sichuan Province, but also to a poor and remote area in Chongqing municipality.
To separate expressway construction and operations from the government, the Sichuan Dashaan Expressway Company Limited (SDEC) was established as an independent company in August 2006 to take charge of the implementation, construction, and operation and maintenance of the project expressway. A concession framework agreement between the Sichuan Provincial Transport Department (SPTD) and the SDEC was signed in December 2008, and two year later, a corporate development plan was prepared and subsequently implemented.
International training in expressway commercialization, highway operations and management, tunnel operations and management, intelligent transport systems, highway maintenance and asset management, tunnel construction and technology, traffic engineering and road safety, and construction risk management was supported. Knowledge acquired was disseminated within the SPTD and SDEC. A training program for the Sichuan Communications and Technology Management College to enhance the local staff capacity in road maintenance and traffic management was launched. Workshops, seminars, technical discussions, and lectures, spanning numerous subjects, were also conducted for internal training and knowledge dissemination purposes.
Successful output deliveries resulted in (i) an improved highway network for PRC and the region, (ii) significantly reduced travel time between Dazhou and Wanyuan, the two primary growth centers in region, (iii) improved road safety and reduced overall vehicle emission rate, and (iv) strengthened institutional capacity of the SPTD and SDEC, enabling them to construct and manage expressways and local roads. These outcomes allowed the project to contribute to economic development and the improvement of living standards in the project areas. From 2007 to 2012, per capita gross domestic product growth rates in several project counties ranged from 51% to 112%. Growth rates in per capita rural income for the same period were between 66% and 97%.
The SPTD was the executing agency, while SDEC, a state-owned enterprise, was the implementing agency.
