The East Airport Road-Airport Expressway section of the Hezhou-Gaolan Port Expressway will open in time for the Sept 28-Oct 3 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China).

Several hundred thousand visitors are expected to travel daily from Xiangzhou District's major hotels, ports, railway stations, and business districts. Hundreds of shuttles, taxies, buses, and private vehicles will fill roadways during the event, which was rescheduled from last November due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The new express route is currently being paved with asphalt, and soon to be installed are traffic safety facilities and electromechanical equipment. When it opens, vehicles going between Xiangzhou District and Zhuhai (Jinwan) Airport will be able to use the expressway during the entire trip. Traffic pressure on East Airport Road will be alleviated, as will jams at the Hezhou-Gaolan Port Expressway interchange in Aviation New Town.

East Airport Road-Airport Expressway being paved [Photo by Zeng Yao / Guanhai App]

The east-west Hezhou-Gaolan Port Expressway is 34.53 km (21.5 miles) long. It extends from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge within Zhuhai's Six Horizontal & Ten Vertical transport network. The expressway connects the Honghe Bridge in the east to the Huangmao Sea Channel Bridge in the west, and Jiangmen-Zhuhai Expressway in the north.

The section between the Jiangmen-Zhuhai Expressway and East Airport Road opened to traffic at the end of last year. It and the Honghe Bridge greatly eased traffic pressure on the Zhuhai Bridge.

In the next phase, the Jitimen Grand Bridge on the Doumen-Jinwan border is undergoing upper structure construction. Spanning 16.48 km (10.24 miles) from Jinwan's Dalin Town to the Gaolan Port Expressway, the section will significantly expedite east-west travel by 2022.

Time to motor between Gongbei and Gaolan Port will be cut to 30 minutes and Zhuhai residents will reach western Guangdong in one hour after the opening of the Huangmao Sea Channel Bridge.