On April 12, the reporter learned from the Zhanjiang Airport Expressway project under Guangdong Provincial Transportation Group that the first pile foundation of the Provincial Highway S544 Overpass has been successfully drilled, marking the official entry of the Zhanjiang Airport Expressway construction into the substantive construction stage. The S544 Overpass is 486.6 meters long, crossing over Provincial Highway S544 and the planned Airport Interchange First Road. It is planned to complete the construction of all 135 pile foundations of the bridge within 60 days from land delivery.

　　“To ensure early commencement and reserve as much time as possible for construction, we adopted a dedicated person-tracking measure in the preliminary work, completing the approval from feasibility study to construction drawing design in 62 days. We completed 30% of land delivery for the advance works within 7 days, thanks to the strong support from the local government.” said Wu Junqiang, director of the project management office. “Before commencement, the management office investigated in advance the capacity and locations of various temporary facilities such as mixing plants and steel processing yards around the project, ensuring that the construction unit could start work immediately upon entering the site. We achieved substantive construction from construction drawing approval in 40 days, setting a new speed record for airport expressway construction.”

　　“The biggest challenge for the advance works is to build a high-quality airport expressway that reassures the people and satisfies drivers and passengers within an extremely short construction period.” introduced Lai Feng, deputy secretary of the Party branch of the management office. Meanwhile, the project's Party branch held the “Branch Lecture Hall” at the construction frontline, directly educating the technical essentials and safety matters of each process to the frontline and serving the construction site.

　　Since the beginning of the project, the Party branch of the management office has always adhered to the deep integration of Party building and production operations. The Party branch launched the “Party Member Pioneer Action” to promote the project's construction progress through Party building leadership. The Party branch awarded the “Party Member Pioneer Team” flag to the Engineering Technology Department and simultaneously established the first “Party Member Responsibility Area” at the construction site of the S544 Overpass, incorporating Party member backbones from all participating parties into the responsibility area to form a supervisory synergy. By having Party members reveal their identities, the management of Party members' target responsibilities was further strengthened, jointly creating a quality project in South Guangdong and a safe construction site demonstration project.

　　The advance works of the first phase of the Zhanjiang Airport Expressway are planned to be completed and opened to traffic in June 2022. It is understood that the Wuchuan Branch Expressway, which connects to the Zhanjiang Airport Expressway, will open to traffic at the end of June this year. In the future, it will jointly form a fast channel connecting multiple areas of Zhanjiang to the new airport with the Zhanjiang Airport Expressway, playing an important role in strengthening the rapid connection between the main urban area of Zhanjiang and the airport and airport economic zone.