On December 26, 2021, the Zhaolu Expressway, built with the participation of the China Railway 18th Bureau Group, opened to traffic. So far, the travel time from Zhaotong to Luzhou will be shortened from the original five hours to less than three hours, and the travel time from Zhaotong to Zhenxiong will also be shortened from four hours to less than one and a half hours.

The Yiliang-Zhenxiong section of Zhaolu Expressway starts from Xinchang Village, Haizi Township, Yiliang, and is interconnected with the Xinchang Hub of Yizhao Expressway, and ends at Zhenxiongdingla and Yibi Expressway. This line is also Yunnan Zhaotong connecting Chengyu area The important inter-provincial passage between Guizhou and Guizhou has a total length of 73.594 kilometers, a two-way four-lane road, and a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour.

During the construction of the project, the 1-2 bid project team of the second company continuously overcome many technical problems such as tunnel crossing coal-bearing geological areas and low-gas areas, surrounding rock fragmentation, disorganized karst caverns, and mud and water bursts. Difficulty in tunnels, difficult drainage, transportation, electricity use, and long-period frost, rain and fog, and other adverse weather factors that interfere with construction, completed the construction tasks with high quality and efficiency, and created favorable conditions for the early completion and opening of the entire line.

It is reported that the Zhaolu Expressway is an express highway connecting the two provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan to major cities, and an important economic passage in the Wumeng Mountains. After the completion and opening to traffic, Zhaolu Expressway will connect Sichuan Yibin and Chengdu to the north, Bijie and Guiyang in Guizhou to the south, Luzhou and Chongqing to the east. At the same time, it will be connected to the built-up Xiamen-Chengdu Expressway and Neiyi Expressway to form a network. It plays an important role in further improving the comprehensive transportation hub at the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, and promoting the social and economic development of the old revolutionary areas along the route.Editor/Ma Xue