The reporter learned from Zhejiang Communications Group that the Ministry of Transport recently approved the preliminary design of the Jinhua section reconstruction and expansion project of the Ningbo-Jinhua Expressway, and the project is expected to start construction within the year.

　　The Ningbo-Jinhua Expressway connecting Ningbo and Jinhua is one of the "horizontal" routes in Zhejiang's expressway network of "nine vertical, nine horizontal, five ring, five corridor and multiple links." Since it opened to traffic in December 2005, traffic volume has continued to grow. This approval clarifies the construction scale, technical standards, design scheme, and estimated investment of the reconstruction and expansion. The project starts at the Jinhua-Shaoxing boundary at the Baifengling Tunnel in Dongyang City, Jinhua, connects with the simultaneously reconstructed and expanded Shaoxing section of the Ningbo-Jinhua Expressway, passes through Dongyang City and Yiwu City, and ends at the Fucun Interchange in Jinyi New Area, connecting with the Hangzhou-Jinhua-Quzhou Expressway. The project has an estimated total investment of about 15.9 billion yuan, a total length of 69.7 kilometers, adopts the standard of a two-way eight-lane expressway with a design speed of 100 km/h, and has a planned construction period of 4 years.