An important expressway linking Beijing and Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei province is expected to open as scheduled as the construction of a bottleneck bridge over the Yongding River progressed smoothly.

The 108-kilometer Beijing-Xiong'an Expressway is one of the major projects to further promote the Beijing-Tianjing-Hebei coordinated development, and is projected to open by the end of 2022.

Workers now are building the main structure of four major piers of the Yongding River bridge after finishing the bearing platform of the piers under water last week.

The 27 km Beijing section of the expressway, two-way and eight-lane – built by State-owned China State Railway Group Co Ltd (CREC) with construction beginning in April 2021 – is currently 60 percent complete.

The section runs through Beijing's Fifth Ring Road, Fangshan district, and Six Ring Road, and connects to the Hebei section at the southern city boundary. The Hebei section has been completed.

Once connected, a "four horizontal, four vertical, and one ring" regional expressway network will be taking shape in Xiong'an New Area, reducing travel time to or from the capital by car down to an hour and alleviating traffic at the capital's southern exits.

"Beijing-Xiong'an Expressway is not only an important channel between Beijing and Xiong'an New Area, but also a direct driving force of development. More enterprises will be attracted to settle in Xiong'an due to the reduction in travel time cost," said Ouyang Guohai, deputy project manager of CREC Beijing-Xiong'an No 4 work area. "I look forward to the day when it is completed and open to the public."

Adhering to local natural environment, the expressway adopted the concept of "sponge city" and incorporated ecological drainage systems and elevating support pillars into its structure.

Rainwater can be collected from the surface of highway segments and stored in space below the highway bridges.

Additionally, the two innermost lanes of the expressway will be designated as automatic driving lanes to accommodate automatic vehicles and relevant road tests in the future.

"At present, the preliminary designs has been completed. Devices such as cameras and sensors supporting automatic driving tests will be installed in place subsequently," said Zhang Tao, head of the construction management department of the CREC Beijing-Xiong'an Development Co Ltd.