According to information published on the website of the Ministry of Transport on October 24. Recently, the Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the State Post Bureau issued the Opinions on Speeding up the Construction of the Main Framework of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Traffic Network.

After many years of construction, the spatial pattern of main framework of integrated three-dimensional traffic network has been basically formed. By the end of 2021, the main framework of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network had been completed by 251,000 kilometers, accounting for about 86 percent of the planned length. This has effectively shortened the spatial and temporal distances between regions, urban agglomerations, and provinces, promoted the development and protection of territorial space, supported economic and social development, and provided fundamental support for the realization of the first Centenary Goal.

 The Opinions pointed out that entering the new development stage, facing the new requirements of entering the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, in our comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network, the main framework still has the problems of imperfect network, unreasonable structure, insufficient capacity of some channels, lack of overall planning and construction, and low quality of development. We will speed up the construction of the main framework, and build a modern and high-quality national comprehensive transportation network that is convenient, smooth, economical, efficient, green, intelligent, advanced, safe and reliable. It is of great significance to building a new development pattern, unblocking the double domestic and international cycle, supporting the implementation of major national strategies, expanding effective investment, safeguarding national strategic security, promoting common prosperity, and being a pioneer in China's modernization.

The "Opinions" clearly defined the construction objectives

By 2025, the utilization rate of the main framework capacity will be significantly improved, and the level of operation efficiency, service quality and overall integration and development will be significantly improved, with the length of the physical network reaching about 260,000 kilometers. The "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway will be basically completed, the bottleneck sections of the regular speed railway will be basically eliminated, the main line of the 71118 national expressway network will be basically completed, and the quality of ordinary national highways will be further improved. Major progress will be made in the development of high-level national shipping lanes, and the comprehensive transportation hub system will become significantly more integrated, intensive, and complex.

 By 2030, the main framework will be completed and the length of the physical network will reach 280,000 kilometers. The six main axes will basically be connected by two or more high-speed railways, ordinary speed railways, national expressways and ordinary national highways. The seven corridors will basically have one high-speed railway and one all-speed railway, and two national expressways and two ordinary national highways. Eight channels will basically realize the connection of railway and highway trunk lines; A multilevel integrated transportation hub system will be basically completed.

By 2035, the main framework will be fully completed, the resilience of the network will be significantly enhanced, and the quality, safety, intelligence and green of the infrastructure will rank among the highest in the world. This will give strong support to the building of the "123 Travel and Transportation Circle in China" and the "123 Express Logistics Circle in the world" and lay a solid foundation for the basic building of China's transportation power.

By the middle of this century, China will have completed the construction of a modern, high-quality, multi-dimensional national transportation network, a world-class comprehensive transportation infrastructure system, and a comprehensive transportation infrastructure system that enables people to enjoy transportation and goods to benefit from transportation. China will become a transportation powerhouse in all respects, providing strong support for building China into a modern socialist country in all respects.

The Opinions put forward 10 key tasks

• First, we will improve the network layout. We will strengthen the interconnection of the main framework routes, supplement the network, and strengthen the network to improve the efficiency of the network. We will speed up the completion of the eight-vertical and eight-horizontal high-speed railway network, strengthen the construction and upgrading of railway lines with ordinary speed, and strengthen the capacity of existing railway lines with limited capacity. We will expand and upgrade congested sections of national expressways in the eastern and central regions and in major city clusters, speed up the connection of national expressways in the central and western regions, and increase the proportion of second-class or above ordinary national expressways in the western region. With the national high-grade waterway as the core, we will speed up the expansion and upgrading of the trunk routes of the Yangtze River, the Xijiang shipping line and the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, speed up the breaking through the bottleneck nodes of the high-grade waterway in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and its tributaries, and actively promote the expansion and extension of the waterway inland. We will coordinate the development of the main framework and regional road network to promote coordinated development and common prosperity among regions. We will strive to build the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region on the railway, build the Xiongan New Area's external transport network with high standards and high quality, build a comprehensive multi-dimensional transport corridor along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and upgrade the development of river-sea intermodal transport and railway-waterway intermodal transport. We will enhance infrastructure connectivity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, strengthen comprehensive links with the mainland, promote higher-quality integrated transport development in the Yangtze River Delta, and speed up the development of external transport corridors, rail transport networks and high-grade waterway networks. We will open up multiple outbound routes from Sichuan to Chongqing in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle and strengthen transport links within the region.

  
  

• Second, we will accelerate the construction of the main hubs. We will comprehensively enhance the capacity of the three major transportation hubs between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. We will build and upgrade auxiliary corridors of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed Railway, the Beijing-Xiongan New Area to Shangqiu, and the Shanghai-Ningbo to Hepu high-speed railways. We will expand and upgrade congested sections of national expressways between Beijing and Shanghai, Beijing-Hong Kong and Macao, and the Changchun-Shenzhen expressways, and upgrade ordinary national highways such as G105 and G107. We will promote the construction of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan and Huangmaohai passageways, and speed up the construction of the third-class waterway in the Zhejiang section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. We will speed up the construction of high-speed railways linking Chengdu-Chongqing with other major urban agglomerations. We will accelerate the construction of high-speed railways linking Liuzhou with Guangzhou and Nanjing with Wuhu. We will expand the capacity of national expressways linking Beijing-Kunming, Shanghai-Chengdu and Shanghai-Chongqing, and upgrade ordinary national highways such as G108 and G321. We will carry out the project to expand the capacity of the Yangtze Golden Waterway, focus on the second phase of the Yangtze Estuary South Trough improvement project and the Anqing to Wuhu waterway improvement project, and speed up the realization of unified standards for the main waterway of the Yangtze River.

  
  

• Third, we will strengthen corridor construction. We will open up the Chengdu-Chongqing-Kunming high-speed railway, speed up the construction of high-speed railways from Baotou to Yinchuan, and promote the construction of second-line railway lines from Huangtong to Baise and from Jinghe to Alataw Pass. We will expand the Beijing-Harbin,Lianyungang-Khorgos and Shanghai-Kunming national expressways and upgrade ordinary national highways such as G312 and G320. We will accelerate the construction of the second phase of the Huaihe River Waterway into the sea, the 3,000-ton waterway of the Xijiang River shipping Trunk, and the new Land and Sea Passage (Pinglu) canal project in the West.

  
  

• Fourth, we will promote the construction of channels. We will advance the construction of the Ya'an-Lingzhi section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, the Xi 'an-Shiyan, Xiangyang-Changde and Changsha-Ganzhou high-speed railways, gradually open up the Qinghai-Yinzhou, Hohhot-Nanning and Chongqing-Xiamen high-speed railway channels, speed up the completion of the Hohhot-Beihai and Erenhot-Guangzhou national expressways, and smooth the way from Xinjiang to Tibet. We will step up the construction of railways, ports and highways along the border, speed up the construction of a three-tier waterway between Xiangjiang-Yongzhou and Hengyang, accelerate the construction of key shoal waterway projects on the lower reaches of the Songhua River, and promote internal and external links to waterways in the Heilongjiang and other international border rivers.

  
  

• Fifth, we will raise the hub energy level. We will strengthen the development of international and national comprehensive transportation hub cities and enhance the capacity of agglomeration and radiation. We will promote the integrated construction of ports and stations in comprehensive transportation hubs, reasonably reserve space for the development of hub stations, and accelerate the construction of port facilities such as the container terminal in the north of Xiaoyangshan, the new container outlet of the Yangtze River in Tongzhou Bay in Nantong, and the container terminal in the south operation area of Dalanping in Qinzhou Port. We will strengthen the construction of deep-water channels and anchorages for entering ports, transshipment warehouses at grain terminals along the coastal and Yangtze Rivers, and storage yards for dangerous goods supporting container terminals. We will upgrade and expand hub airports in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Kunming, and strengthen the efficient connection between international hub airports and rail transit. Relying on hub airports, major ports and high-speed railway stations, we will build a number of comprehensive passenger and freight hubs, promote the construction of Hubei core international logistics hub (Ezhou), Changsha Huanghua Airport comprehensive passenger transport hub, Hangzhou West high-speed Railway Station comprehensive passenger transport hub and Haikou New port comprehensive transport hub, and improve the national postal express hub system. We will strengthen the development of the hub transportation system and speed up the construction of special railway lines in important port areas, large industrial and mining enterprises and logistics parks.

  
  

• Sixth, we will improve multimodal transport. We will give full play to the comparative advantages of various modes of transport, speed up the development of multimodal transport, and improve the combined efficiency. We will promote information sharing, convergence of standards and market integration of various modes of transport. We will accelerate the development of intermodal transportation, strengthen the coordination of operation information, flight schedule and transport capacity arrangement among different modes, and promote the purchase of tickets at one station and the passage of one ticket (pass). We will speed up the adjustment of freight structure, vigorously develop bulk cargo, container rail-water combined transportation and river-sea combined transportation, promote the sharing of containers, standardized pallets and turnover boxes (baskets) among different modes of transportation, and speed up the "one unit" system of multimodal transportation. We will encourage traditional transport enterprises to transform into intermodal and multimodal transport operators.

  
  

• Seventh, we will improve the effectiveness of management and maintenance. We will promote the integrated development of trunk railways, inter-city railways and urban (suburban) railways, make good connections and coordination with urban rail transit, improve the operation mechanism of the highway network, promote the joint scheduling of high-grade inland waterways and navigation buildings across provinces and cities, and actively participate in the optimization of national airspace planning and classification. We will implement the concept of full-life-cycle cost, strengthen routine preventive maintenance of transport infrastructure, strengthen integrated management of comprehensive railway maintenance and maintenance, deepen market-oriented reform of highway maintenance, and institutionalize and standardize maintenance of high-level inland waterways. We will enhance the capacity of civil aviation infrastructure operations and security, strengthen coordination and linkage of management and maintenance work in different jurisdictions, and improve the overall benefits of the whole life cycle.

  
  

• Eighth, we will accelerate smart upgrading. We will continue to be innovation-driven, take digitization, networking and intelligentization as the main line, and promote the collaborative and integrated construction of perception, transmission and computing facilities with the main transport infrastructure. We will promote intelligent railway infrastructure, build a new generation of rail transit mobile communication systems, promote intelligent upgrading of high-speed railways, and promote the application of next-generation train control systems and intelligent traffic dispatching and commanding systems. We will carry out a highway digitization campaign, promote the digitalization of highway infrastructure in an orderly manner, expand the application of the electronic no-stop toll collection system (ETC) on highways, and steadily advance the construction of a cloud control platform for smart road networks. We will actively promote the construction of smart waterways and smart ports, improve the electronic chart of high-grade inland waterways, strengthen the joint intelligent dispatch system of cascaded hub locks, and promote the development of new automated containers and dry bulk cargo terminals as well as the development and application of terminal operating systems. We will promote the construction of smart airports, improve airport security capacity, service level and operation efficiency, develop a new generation of air traffic management system, and improve the ability of air traffic to operate in a global, refined and intelligent manner. We will promote the intelligent construction of comprehensive passenger transport hubs and freight hubs (logistics parks), carry out applications such as digital storage and inventory management, and promote the overall layout, unified standards and synchronous construction of digital intelligent facilities across provinces, so as to form an overall service capacity as soon as possible.

  
  

• Ninth, we will promote green transformation. We will implement the concept of ecological priority, green and low carbon throughout the whole process of main framework planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in the whole life cycle. We will strengthen the awareness of conserving and intensive land use and protecting cultivated land, actively promote land saving technology and land saving mode, take land saving as an important factor in project site selection and construction plans, and strengthen the awareness of ecological protection. We will give priority to avoiding ecologically sensitive areas, but those that cannot be avoided should take strict measures for ecological protection and pollution prevention. We will promote low-carbon green transport infrastructure development, build near-zero carbon demonstration areas such as port areas, airports, highway service areas and transport hubs, strengthen green waterways, and protect the ecological functions of rivers and lakes. We will promote standardized, intelligent and industrial construction of transport infrastructure, promote the combination of permanent and temporary construction, promote the integration of construction and maintenance, reduce the consumption of life-cycle resources, promote the electrification of railways and airports, and accelerate the effective coverage of high-speed highway charging networks.

  
  

• Tenth, we need to improve security. We will strengthen the multi-mode and multi-path construction of the framework, enhance the resilience and security of the network, and enhance the ability to cope with extreme situations. We will promote the quality construction and fine management of the main framework construction project, create a "century-old quality project of safety", strengthen the construction of traffic safety facilities of the main skeleton construction project, and strengthen the construction of disaster prevention and reduction facilities. Focusing on long and large bridges and navigable buildings, we will strengthen the screening and risk management of potential safety hazards, improve the layout and management of highway traffic emergency equipment and materials storage centers, and strengthen monitoring, maintenance and emergency support for waterway operations.

The Opinions specify six requirements for implementation

• First, we need to strengthen coordination in development. We will adhere to the "one game of chess" of the whole network, formulate and issue the plan of the main framework route, deepen the research of each route, each mode, each route's functional positioning, construction conditions and transportation needs, and put forward the requirements of route composition and construction. We will carry out assessment of the adaptability of the main framework, find out railway sections with limited capacity, highway sections to be completed or bottlenecked, and substandard high-grade waterways, establish and improve the project database of the main framework construction, and determine the construction and renovation arrangements in a scientific and orderly manner in an appropriately advanced manner. In formulating the five-year development plan (including medium-term adjustment) and the annual investment plan, we will give priority to implementing the tasks of building the main framework. All regions should promote the formulation, release and implementation of provincial comprehensive three-dimensional transport network plans, formulate special medium - and long-term transport plans in light of local conditions, and strengthen functional coordination and network connection with the main framework. We need to strengthen coordination in development between regions and modes. Relevant provinces and departments should strengthen communication and connection, jointly study the alignment trend, interface plan, construction opportunity and construction standard of cross-provincial related sections, coordinate and optimize the alignment arrangement of projects in different ways, cross engineering and junction connection, improve the mutually beneficial support measures for railway and railway crossing, and give full play to the combination efficiency. 

  
  

• Second, we should pay attention to the coordination of resources. We should promote the economical and intensive use of land, line sites, bridge sites, water and shorelines for the construction of the main framework, and promote the use of multiple ways of sharing river crossings. In principle, we will strictly control the single-mode crossing of new projects in urban and estuarine sections of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Pearl River, integrate and optimize the section space, coordinate with the layout of communication, energy, water conservancy, municipal and other infrastructure along the lines, promote the development of traffic channels from single to comprehensive, horizontal to three-dimensional, and improve the utilization rate of national land space. For the main framework reconstruction and expansion project, we should make full use of the existing channel resources to reduce land occupation and environmental impact. We need to strengthen the dynamic connection and information sharing between transportation planning and land and spatial planning, and do a good job of checking information on the "one map" of land and spatial planning and storing it in the database. We need to clarify the layout of space and the scale of land use control, and better coordinate the alignment and placement of transport infrastructure with arable land, permanent basic farmland, red lines for ecological protection, urban and rural development boundaries, the layout of urban and rural development, and the shorelines of rivers, lakes, and water areas.

  
  

• Third, we will do solid preliminary work. All localities and relevant departments should increase the intensity and depth of preliminary work on the main framework construction projects, strengthen coordination with the departments of development and reform, natural resources, ecological environment, housing and urban and rural construction, water conservancy, cultural relics, forestry and grassland, and start special work on conserving and intensive land use, environmental assessment, navigation assessment, flood control, water resources and archaeological investigation as early as possible in accordance with the law, and optimize the preliminary work procedures. In the feasibility study report of the main framework construction project, we should add a special chapter on comprehensive transportation, in-depth study and analysis of the alternative and complementary relationship between the proposed project and related transportation projects, and fully listen to the Opinions of relevant parties. Water transport construction should be coordinated with comprehensive river basin planning, and we will follow the approval procedures for river-related construction projects in accordance with laws and regulations to ensure flood control and water supply safety.

• Fourth, we should reasonably choose construction standards. We should deepen the research and demonstration of the construction standard of the main framework project. To build new high-speed railways and to build, renovate and expand expressways in the eastern and central regions, we should fully consider the long-term development needs and construction conditions, and make standard reservations. For the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Pearl River crossings, we should fully discuss the construction scale and standards based on geological conditions, road network layout, topography, urban development and other factors. In principle, a new expressway crossing should not be less than six lanes. In principle, ordinary national highways shall be constructed according to the secondary and above standards. In principle, the construction conditions of double-line navigation buildings should be reserved according to the thousand-ton level and above standards. For large Bridges and tunnels at major nodes, we should appropriately raise the seismic fortification level and strengthen the capacity building of tunnel waterproofing and drainage facilities.

  
  

• Fifth, we will strengthen technological breakthroughs. In light of the needs of major projects and the nature of the environment, we will intensify targeted efforts to tackle key scientific and technological problems. We should strengthen research and development of new construction technologies and high-performance engineering materials such as lines, long-span Bridges, ultra-long tunnels and high-lift and large-capacity ship lifts under complex environmental conditions. We need to strengthen technological research on improving the performance of in-service transport infrastructure, early warning of geological disasters, rapid recovery of damaged projects, emergency response, and transportation support. We will carry out special studies on key issues of the Hunan-Guangxi and Ganzhou-Guangdong Grand Canal projects and carry them out in due time. We will promote research on new waterway channels for the Three Gorges and large-scale cross-sea passage, strengthen research on upgrading and upgrading technologies for high-speed railways, and carry out research and evaluation on high-speed maglev railways.

  
  

• Sixth, we need to improve technical standards. We will improve the technical requirements and supporting policies for the planning, design, construction and management of multi-mode shared channel line, and clarify the management mechanism, responsibility subjects, and division of rights and interests. We will study and formulate specifications for the design of tunnels used by highways and railways, and speed up the promotion and application of technical specifications for Bridges, parallel roads and intersections. We will improve the technical provisions on expressways with more than eight lanes. We will accelerate the revision of standards and norms for transport safety emergency response, conservation and intensive land use, energy conservation and carbon reduction, underground interchange, new infrastructure construction and transportation construction in special natural environments.

In addition, the Opinions also made specific requirements on strengthening organizational leadership, financial security, land security, incentive evaluation and other security measures.

Source: the Ministry of Transport