The expansion of North Yingbin Road got underway on March 5 to serve two supplementary Banzhang Mt tunnels that are to open by June between New Xiangzhou and Gongbei.

The central greenbelt of the road in Ningxi is being narrowed to make space for a 593-m (648-yd) motor lane from the north tunnel entrance to Huafa Hills on its west side, and a 383-m (419-yd) section to the Ningxi Road intersection on the east side.

The expanded North Yingbin Road will form a dual eight-lane passageway along with the two current Banzhang Mt tunnels, according to Zhuhai Urban Construction Group project head Tian Yangming.

Narrowing of central greenbelt of North Yingbin Road in Ningxi [Photo by Zhong Fan / Zhujiang Evening Post] 

As of Wednesday, 125 workers were at the Banzhang Mt tunnel additions site and the supply of building materials had been secured. Crews are excavating street lamps from the greenbelt, while others work on underground utilities, link road expansion, and tunnel equipment.

Inasmuch as traffic flow on Yingbin Road has lightened during the outbreak, more equipment is being used in order to return to schedule. Work on the central greenbelt is carried out from 9:30 am to 4 pm and 10 pm to 6 am throughout March 31. Each side of the greenbelt has one motor lane blocked during construction.

Upon completion, the new dual-lane tunnels with a speed limit of 60 kmph (37 mph) and slow-traffic passageway through Banzhang Mt will break the gridlocks on north-south Yingbin Road and further alleviate traffic pressure on downtown Zhuhai.

In addition to providing guidance and disinfection, the project team also has run nucleic acid tests on returned workers and scrutinized their travel history for the sake of epidemic prevention and control.