At the Jiangsu Provincial Transport Work Conference held on January 7, it was learned that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the province completed 1 trillion yuan in investment in transport infrastructure, making it the five-year period with the greatest investment intensity and the fastest network expansion. This year,JiangsuProvince plans to complete 240 billion yuan in transport investment, continuing to advance at a high level. By 2030, it will basically achieve transport modernization, with the overall level of transport development ranking among the top in the country, and the reduction of logistics costs and improvement of quality and efficiency in transport and logistics continuing to lead the country. A more efficient and smoother modern comprehensive transport system is being accelerated, continuously consolidating support and unblocking arteries for the province's high-quality development.

Strengthening the foundation and expanding the network to build a new three-dimensional transport pattern

"In 2026, we must get off to a good start and make a solid beginning in improving the comprehensive three-dimensional transport network, completing 240 billion yuan in fixed-asset investment in transport for the year," saidJiangsuProvincial Transport Department Director Wu Yonghong.

Highway construction focuses on unblocking bottlenecks and optimizing structure. Within the year, the expansion project of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway from Guangling Hub to Jingjiang Hub and the Dongtai-Xinghua Expressway will be completed, adding 112 kilometers of expressways and completing 158 kilometers of reconstruction and expansion. For ordinary highways, 400 kilometers of rural roads will be newly built or reconstructed, and 300 rural highway bridges will be upgraded.

River-crossing channels and railway construction maintain "acceleration." In 2026, the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Yangtze River Tunnel and the Jianning West Road river-crossing channel will be completed, construction will start on the second Suzhou-Nantong river-crossing channel, and cross-river connections will continue to be densified to support integrated development of both banks. In railways, high-speed rail projects under construction will be accelerated, including the northern沿 Yangtze, Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo, Weifang-Suqian, Nanjing-Huai'an, and Yancheng-Taizhou-Wuxi-Changzhou-Yixing lines, and the Sixian-Suqian section of the Hefei-Suqian railway will be ensured to start construction.

In water transport and aviation, efforts focus on strengthening hubs and raising capacity levels. Water transport construction will accelerate key projects such as the Phase II supporting navigation project of the Huaihe River Sea-Entry Channel and the secondary waterway regulation of the Sulian Waterway, start construction on projects including the Lianyungang section of the Sulian secondary waterway, the Yancheng section of the Yanbao Line, the Xin-Chang Railway Bridge section of the Lianshen Line, and the port-connecting waterway regulation project in the Lianyungang Port area, and begin three "small, fast, and flexible" waterways. The Wuxi Airport reconstruction and expansion project and the Gaoyou general aviation airport project will be completed and put into operation, the Changzhou and Yangtai airport reconstruction and expansion projects will be completed, and the Huai'an airport reconstruction and expansion project will be accelerated.

With a series of high-intensity investments and key projects being vigorously advanced, by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will strive to complete a series of medium- and long-term goals: a total expressway mileage of 6,100 kilometers; provincial railway operating mileage of 5,700 kilometers, including 3,600 kilometers of high-speed rail; and a cumulative total of 28 river-crossing channels built, 7 more than at the end of 2025.

Reducing costs and improving efficiency to smooth the "main artery" of economic circulation

Jiangsu has a complete range of transport modes—road, rail, water, and air—and the unique advantage of linking sea, river, lake, and canal is being transformed into tangible competitiveness.

At Lianyungang Port, wisdom for "saving money" is hidden in each container. The country's first "bonded + export" mixed consolidation model allows small-volume goods to ride along with export containers, saving enterprises an average of 73% in logistics costs per shipment and shortening shipping wait times by more than 15 days. Seemingly minor process reengineering has significantly reduced enterprises' comprehensive transport costs.

Unblocking the "last mile," rural logistics is also quietly upgrading. Through an innovative model of "bus mail delivery + smart vehicle delivery + manual network supplementation," Jiangyan District of Taizhou City has woven a "1-hour logistics circle" across the Jianghuai Plain, enabling efficient delivery of an average of 250,000 parcels per day.

Data confirm the results. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince built 42 multimodal transport freight hubs and 5 national-level multimodal transport demonstration projects, stably operated 152 multimodal transport routes, and focused on cultivating 63 premium routes. It opened 124 inland river container routes, with inland river container throughput exceeding 2 million TEUs and rail-water intermodal transport volume growing by an average of more than 15%. Waterway freight volume accounted for about 38.9% of the province's total, about 21.4 percentage points higher than the national average. Coverage rates of county-, township-, and village-level rural logistics service centers (stations, points) reached 100%, 95%, and over 90%, respectively. Among these, 5 cases were selected as typical cases of rural logistics development by the Ministry of Transport, and 13 brands were selected as rural logistics service brands by the Ministry of Transport, both ranking first in the country.

This year,JiangsuProvince will push the reduction of transport and logistics costs and improvement of quality and efficiency to a new level: stably operating 60 premium multimodal transport routes and completing 3 million TEUs of container multimodal transport volume; building the Lianyungang-Xuzhou assembly center for China-Europe freight trains to high standards, opening 1 new route, adding 1 overseas warehouse, and creating brand container sea-rail intermodal routes such as Lianyungang-Khorgos-Tashkent.

Wu Yonghong said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will promote the "single document" and "single container" multimodal transport organization models, striving for an average annual growth rate of container multimodal transport volume exceeding 7%. It will smooth transport channels for the "new three" products and vigorously develop rail-water (sea-rail) intermodal and roll-on/roll-off transport models for complete new energy vehicles. It will improve urban freight distribution service levels, plan and build a three-tier urban distribution network supported by comprehensive logistics centers, public distribution centers, and terminal delivery outlets, and promote shared warehousing and joint distribution, unified distribution, and rural logistics "freight buses" with fixed times, fixed points, and fixed routes.

Digital and intelligent empowerment to shape a new form of future transport

What sparks will fly when transport meets artificial intelligence? Jiangsu's answer is: in 2026, the two will be integrated in all respects to create an important base for developing new quality productive forces.

Deepen the application of typical scenarios of "AI + transport." Accelerate the construction of a trusted data space for the industry, build vertical models for monitoring and early warning, road network dispatch, and maintenance decision-making, as well as intelligent agents for road network control, intelligent supervision, and safety emergency response, and implement 50 typical application scenarios to high standards.

Serve the development of the low-altitude economy. Carry out pilot construction of standardized low-altitude takeoff and landing sites and low-altitude public routes, and promptly launch the Nanjing pilot section of the Yangtze River low-altitude public route. Carry out the second phase of the provincial low-altitude flight service platform, guide Suzhou City to work with surrounding areas on the pilot construction of urban air traffic management, and explore the "comprehensive fly-once" model for low-altitude transport.

Comprehensively advance digital transformation and upgrading. Complete digital upgrading of 2,900 kilometers of highways and 1,700 kilometers of waterways, and achieve smart capacity expansion on 770 kilometers of expressways. Build structural monitoring systems for 600 ordinary national and provincial highway bridges and 300 video surveillance sites. Build 240 smart expressway toll stations and realize "mobile phone+" E-road smooth and card-free convenient passage on expressways.

It is worth mentioning that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will build an intelligent sensing network for highway and waterway operation monitoring. By 2027, it will achieve full coverage of structural health monitoring for key monitored bridges on expressways and ordinary national and provincial highways, and by 2029, full coverage of bridge monitoring on all expressways and ordinary national and provincial highways. It will cumulatively build about 3,000 kilometers of intelligent sensing facilities for waterways, gradually achieve basic coverage of intelligent sensing facilities on the "two vertical and five horizontal" trunk waterway network, reach 100% coverage of electronic navigation charts for graded waterways, and fully complete smart ship locks.

From roads to waterways, from transport to services, digital technology and the transport system are deeply coupling in Jiangsu. A smarter, smoother, and more considerate modern comprehensive transport system is no longer just a blueprint—it is accelerating along digital tracks toward reality.