On the morning of June 28, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Yuanyang-Zhengzhou (Lanyuan Expressway to Lianhuo Expressway) section of the Anyang-Luoshan Expressway project was held at the construction site in Zhongmu. The start of construction on this project marks the official launch of Zhengzhou's "13445 Project" for expressway construction.

The Yuanyang-Zhengzhou section of the Anyang-Luoshan Expressway is one of the 16 north-south corridors laid out in the Henan Provincial Expressway Network Plan (2021-2035), part of the state-planned Beijing-Xiongan-Wuhan Expressway, an important component of Zhengzhou's Second Ring Expressway within the "Three Rings, Six Verticals, Six Horizontals and Six Links" of the Zhengzhou metropolitan area, and a vital corridor for building the core demonstration zone for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. The project starts at the Lanyuan Expressway in Yuanyang, Xinxiang City, and ends at the Lianhuo Expressway in Zhongmu, Zhengzhou City, with a total length of about 21.665 km, of which about 11.974 km is in Zhengzhou and about 9.691 km in Xinxiang, with an estimated investment of about 10.692 billion yuan. The main construction content is the Yellow River Mega Bridge, with a total length of 15.223 km, the longest highway bridge in the Yellow River Basin; its 520-meter main-span cable-stayed bridge is one of the longest spans in the province. The main line has three interchanges and is built to a two-way, eight-lane expressway standard, with a design speed of 120 km/h and a subgrade width of 42 meters. The construction period is four years, and the project is scheduled to open to traffic in 2025.

Once completed, the project will form a new north-south corridor between the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway and the Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway, connecting north to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster and Xiongan New Area and south to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River city cluster. It will further strengthen regional economic integration, drive integrated development of city clusters along the route, and boost high-quality development in the central region in the new era. It will also accelerate the modernization of Zhengzhou as a national central city and the interconnection of the Zhengzhou metropolitan area, help Zhengzhou build an international comprehensive transport hub and international logistics center, and serve as a road of livelihood, development and hope carrying multiple significances.

The start of construction on this project marks the official launch of Zhengzhou's "13445 Project" for expressway construction. Under the current situation in which the city is consolidating and expanding the achievements of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development and vigorously promoting high-quality development as a national central city, the start of construction is of great significance for effectively boosting investment and promoting economic growth.

Zhengzhou's development is founded on and advantaged by transportation. In recent years, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and national ministries have issued relevant documents explicitly positioning Zhengzhou as an international comprehensive transport hub city, a railway hub with international transport service functions, an international air cargo hub, an international postal and express processing center and an international logistics center. The 13th Plenary Session of the 11th Municipal Party Committee put forward the development goals of "two transformations and five strengths," among which "internationalization" and "a strong hub" mean building Zhengzhou into an international comprehensive transport hub and opening-up gateway. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Zhengzhou will focus on building an important hub for the domestic circulation and a strategic pivot for the dual domestic and international circulation, and vigorously advance the construction of aviation, railway, highway and other infrastructure. In terms of highways, it will strive to build Zhengzhou's Second Ring Expressway enclosed by the "Shangdeng-Anyang-Luoshan-Yanhuang-Jiaoping" expressways, achieve full start of construction on all sections not yet begun in 2021, achieve closed-loop operation in 2025, and add nearly 200 km of expressway mileage open to traffic. By then, the Zhengzhou metropolitan area's transport network will have a better structure and higher traffic efficiency, basically forming a comprehensive three-dimensional transport system that is smooth externally and interconnected internally, and Zhengzhou's status as an international comprehensive transport hub will be significantly enhanced.