With the rapid economic growth that has taken place in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since the 1980s, vehicle ownership and demand for road transport infrastructure have substantially increased. Efforts to reduce the economic imbalances between the coastal provinces and the inland regions have also resulted in a shift in the factors of production from the coastal regions to the interior. Labor-intensive industries have relocated inland, generating strong demand for least cost and direct flow of freight and traffic between regions.
To address the challenges, the government in 1988 embarked on a long-term strategy of creating a national trunk highway system, 35,000 kilometers (km) in total length. By 2004, this strategy had evolved into a plan for an 85,000 km national expressway network, to be fully completed by 2020. All major economic centers and municipalities will then be connected by expressways and a supplementary nationwide network of local roads.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has supported the government’s efforts to expandand improve national and local road networks since 1991. One of the many road projects supported by ADB in the PRC was the Gansu Roads Development Project, approved for a loan of $300 million in December 2004. The project aimed to promote economic growth and reduce poverty in eastern Gansu province, one of the northwestern region’s least developed provinces that used to be remote and isolated. It intended to achieve this goal by lowering transport costs, easing traffic congestion, and improving access to and from the project area.
At appraisal, the project comprised (i) the construction of a 231 km, four-lane, access-controlled toll expressway from Luohandong to Dingxi, including access roads, interchanges with toll stations, tunnels, bridges, administrative stations, and service areas; (ii) the upgrading of 470 km of local roads to improve access to remote poor areas and to roadside stations; (iii) the procurement of equipment for road maintenance, toll collection, surveillance and communications, tunnel operation facilities, vehicle weighing stations, road safety, and office administration; (iv) land acquisition and resettlement; and (v) consulting services for construction supervision, road safety audit, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building.
The 231 km project expressway consisted of two broken sections requiring a connecting section in the Ningxia Autonomous Region. The eastern part of the Ningxia connecting section was implemented under another ADB-financed project and was opened to traffic in December 2011. However, construction of the western part proceeded far behind schedule, as result of which, the two fully completed project expressway sections in Gansu could not be connected until after the completion of this government-financed section in Ningxia in 2015. The 130 km west section of the project expressway itself was completed and opened to traffic in December 2009, while the 101 km east section was completed and opened to traffic in December 2011. The completed project expressway includes 67 large bridges, 33 medium-sized bridges, 11 interchanges, 18 toll stations, and four service areas.
At envisaged at appraisal, 7 local roads with a total length of 470 km were improved, 5 of which were financed by domestic funds. The two local roads funded by ADB comprised the 73 km Dingxi–Longxi road, completed in December 2007, and the 118 km Jingyuan–Huining road that was opened to traffic in January 2011. Road safety, road maintenance, and road testing equipment were also provided under the ADB loan.
The outcome of more efficient and safe transport in the project area, envisaged at appraisal, was substantially achieved because of satisfactory output deliveries. The annual average daily traffic on the local roads has turned out higher than projected, leading to increases in annual traffic of between 14% and 57% for passengers, and between 23% and 94% for freight. The resulting safer and more efficient movement of passengers and freight at lower cost have benefited the poor in the project area.
Traffic speeds on the project expressway have been efficient, at between 85–95 km per hour for cars and 65–80 km per hour for trucks. Travel time on the expressway has been reduced from 6.5 hours to 3 hours while that on the local roads has varied. VOC savings on the expressway has ranged from Chinese yuan (CNY)0.28 (about $0.04) to CNY1.67 (about $0.27) per vehicle-km, depending on the type of vehicle. Road safety audits also have revealed that all of the project's road safety management measures have been effective.
The GPTD was the project executing agency. The Gansu Changda Highway Co., a state-owned enterprise established in 2001, was the implementing agency for the project expressway component. The local roads component was implemented by the Gansu provincial road administrative bureau, under GPTD’s overall guidance.
