To fully accomplish the goals and tasks of the "12th Five-Year Plan," Hubei's transport authorities, in line with the "six doublings" goals, have set up financing platforms, made every effort to supervise project construction, and strived to make transport truly serve as the vanguard of development.

 

    Highway and waterway projects advance together

 

    At the end of last year, the total mileage of expressways open to traffic in Hubei reached 5,106 kilometers, the province's port container throughput reached 1.25 million TEUs, the mileage of high-grade waterways exceeded 1,700 kilometers, and all administrative villages in the province had access to asphalt (cement) roads. In the first four years of the "12th Five-Year Plan," Hubei's transport sector completed a cumulative investment of 317.1 billion yuan, accomplishing the goals and tasks of the "12th Five-Year Plan" ahead of schedule.

 

    According to the plan, by the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan," Hubei's expressways will exceed 6,500 kilometers, 2,890 kilometers of first-class highways and 6,045 kilometers of second-class highways will be newly built or reconstructed, and all administrative villages will have access to passenger transport services. By the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan," Hubei's transport sector will achieve the "six doublings": the scale of the province's transport fixed-asset investment will double, from 133 billion yuan to 305.9 billion yuan; the scale of inland river shipping investment will double, from 10.6 billion yuan to 26.9 billion yuan; the scale of investment in integrated transport hubs and transport logistics projects will double, from 2.2 billion yuan to 9 billion yuan; the mileage of first-class highways will double, from 2,127 kilometers to 5,000 kilometers; the newly added mileage of high-grade waterways will double, from 60 kilometers to 300 kilometers; and port container handling capacity will double, from 1.5 million TEUs to 4 million TEUs.

 

    It is understood that among these "six doublings" goals, Hubei completed four ahead of schedule last year.

 

   Breaking down responsibilities and priorities

 

    To win the final battle of the "12th Five-Year Plan," the Hubei Provincial Department of Transport issued the "2015 Work Priorities and Responsibility Breakdown for Key Work Task Forces," specifying 48 work priorities and 16 key tasks. At the same time, following the working approach of "monthly inspections of provincial transport investment group projects, focused supervision of social investment projects, and on-site supervision of seriously lagging projects," it has made every effort to supervise expressway construction tasks.

 

    Staff from the Key Projects Office of the Hubei Provincial Department of Transport spend more than 20 days each month conducting on-site supervision at construction sites, keeping real-time track of project progress and promptly coordinating and resolving issues affecting project advancement.

 

    Actively building financing platforms

 

    Last year, Hubei's completed transport investment exceeded the 100 billion yuan mark for the first time. From 2011 to 2014, Hubei completed a cumulative transport investment of 317.1 billion yuan, accounting for 103% of the "12th Five-Year Plan" target. It is expected that investment during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period will exceed 410 billion yuan, 2.1 times the investment during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period.

 

    This year, Hubei's transport authorities have withstood downward economic pressure, actively sought subsidy funds from the central vehicle purchase tax and support from the provincial finance department, actively built transport financing platforms, established diversified investment mechanisms, and focused on ensuring the start of construction on 297 kilometers of the "four roads and two bridges," completing the construction tasks for 1,400 kilometers of expressways and ordinary highways including the Yunxian-Shiyan expressway, and planning key projects such as the "645 Project," the Three Gorges dam-crossing hub, and the elimination of expressway "dead-end roads," so as to ensure completion of the annual investment target of 85 billion yuan for the whole year and strive to exceed 100 billion yuan again.

 

    At present, Hubei's transport sector is actively aligning with the "Belt and Road" initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the open development of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and relying on the construction of the Yangtze River golden waterway to build a comprehensive three-dimensional transport corridor. Starting from building "major corridors, major hubs, major networks, major logistics, and major platforms," Hubei's transport sector has planned a number of major transport projects for the "13th Five-Year Plan" and through 2030. Next, Hubei's transport sector will advance the construction of four 100-billion-yuan sectors—modern shipping, hub logistics, expressways, and ordinary highways—eight major transport projects, and 123 major projects.