On December 31, the Lijiang–Yongsheng section of the Yunnan Huaping–Lijiang Expressway, invested and built by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), was officially completed and opened to traffic, with operations managed by CCCC Asset Management. The Jin'an Jinsha River Bridge — the world's largest-span suspension bridge in a mountainous canyon — was also put into service at the same time.
The Huali Expressway is a component of the Chengdu–Lijiang connecting line of the Shanghai–Chengdu Expressway in the national expressway network. Located within Lijiang City, it runs generally east–west, starting in Rongjiang Town of Huaping County and ending in Lashi Township of Yulong County, with a total length of about 151 kilometers. The Lijiang–Yongsheng section is about 67 kilometers long, and its main construction contents include 72 bridges, 17 tunnels, 7 interchanges and 1 service area. It was managed by the General Contracting Branch Company, with the First Highway Engineering Bureau Group, Second Highway Engineering Bureau, Third Highway Engineering Bureau, Second Harbor Engineering Bureau, Third Harbor Engineering Bureau and Electromechanical Engineering Bureau participating in construction.
The Jin'an Jinsha River Bridge is a key control project of the entire line, connecting Jin'an Town of Lijiang's Gucheng District and Songping Lisu and Yi Township of Yongsheng County. It is a canyon suspension bridge with a complex structure and high technical difficulty, built at high altitude, with large elevation differences and high seismic intensity. It is a double-tower, double-cable-plane, single-span simply supported plate-truss composite stiffening girder suspension bridge. Its two main towers are 192 meters and 228 meters high respectively, the bridge deck is 27 meters wide, the main span is 1,386 meters, and the vertical height difference between the bridge deck and the river surface at the valley bottom reaches 335 meters. The bridge set four world records: the world's largest-span suspension bridge in a mountainous canyon, the world's largest span of a bridge cable crane, the world's smallest width-to-span ratio for a mountainous canyon bridge, and the world's first full-penetration welding technology for the U-ribs of the entire bridge deck.
The opening of the Lijiang–Yongsheng section has greatly shortened the travel time from Lijiang's Gucheng District to Yongsheng County. After the entire Huali Expressway opens to traffic, it will greatly promote economic development in northwestern Yunnan and achieve seamless transportation connectivity between Yunnan and Sichuan, improving the expressway network layout of Lijiang City and Panzhihua City.