A major transportation artery in northern Shanghai is accelerating toward completion at full speed. The new S16 Yunchuan Expressway project, with a total length of about 17.5 kilometers, is currently advancing construction at a brisk pace, with all key procedures progressing steadily as planned.

The entire S16 Yunchuan Expressway new construction project is located in Baoshan District, starting in the south at the G1503 Highway-Yunchuan Road Interchange and extending north to the Shanghai-Jiangsu provincial boundary, connecting with the S48 Shanghai-Yixing Expressway. The project adopts an "elevated mainline + ground-level auxiliary road" layout, with a T-shaped interchange set up at the G1503 Highway-Yunchuan Highway node, "double-Y" interchange entrances and exits at Chuanxiong Road and Panchuan Road, and parallel ramp entrances and exits on the north side of Yueluo Highway and the south side of Shitai Road. The elevated mainline of the S16 Highway is an expressway with six to eight lanes in both directions and a design speed of 100 km/h to 120 km/h; the ground-level Yunchuan Highway is a first-class highway built to highway urban-section standards, with four to six lanes in both directions and a design speed of 60 km/h.

In terms of external radiation capacity and strategic significance, the importance of the S16 Yunchuan Expressway is particularly prominent. Guo Lei, chief engineer of the Second Command Headquarters of the Third Division of Chengtou Highway, introduced that once the project is completed, it will build a high-grade out-of-province corridor in the north, strengthen Shanghai-Jiangsu connectivity, and promote high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta; together with the riverside corridor, it will form a major riverside and coastal corridor, providing strong support for the construction of an international shipping center and the development of riverside and coastal industrial belts; it will enhance rapid connections between key areas along the route and the central city, further optimize the out-of-province transportation needs of industrial areas, and vigorously promote the northward transformation and development of Baoshan.

It is worth noting that the completion of the S16 Yunchuan Expressway will greatly promote the development of northern Baoshan. Major areas such as the Yuepu residential area, the Baosteel plant area, and the Baoshan Industrial Park are distributed along the project route; in particular, for the Luojing Port Area, it will effectively break through the transportation bottleneck that has long constrained the region.

At the construction site of the S16 Yunchuan Expressway (G1503 Highway-Provincial Boundary) new construction project, construction workers are hoisting small box girders. Wang Yongjie, chief engineer of the Shanghai Construction Group civil works construction Bid 1 project, introduced that the construction area is adjacent to the G1503 Expressway and Tongji Road Elevated Road, with very limited construction space and extremely difficult hoisting. "In response to the hoisting challenges posed by limited space at some construction sites and the eccentric center of gravity of some small box girders due to attached crash barriers, the project team, through digital twin rehearsal and IoT intelligent control simulation and monitoring, innovatively adopted a 'crawler crane + carrying-pole balance adjustment' hoisting scheme, successfully solving the girder torsion problem that could be caused by traditional single-point hoisting."

Construction workers are hoisting small box girders

According to the plan, the S16 Yunchuan Expressway new construction project is expected to be completed by the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. Guo Lei stated that, in terms of overall progress, the Yanghang Town section and the Luojing Town section have started construction, while Yuepu Town is accelerating land acquisition work.

"At present, greening relocation along the entire line has been basically completed, and relocation of pipelines including communications, power, and water supply is underway. For the G1503 interchange bridges, pile foundations and pile caps are 35% complete, columns and bent caps are 25% complete, and small box girder erection is 2% complete."

Regarding the engineering difficulties, the project has a large quantity of special pipelines along its route and tight space. Guo Lei said the project involves the relocation or protection of 7 raw water lines, 1 ultra-high-pressure gas line, 2 heating lines, 13 220 kV lines and 1 500 kV ultra-high-voltage power corridor, and 2 substations/switching stations. In addition, the route intersects 33 roads and 30 rivers, with 22 ground bridges and 11 pipeline protection bridges to be newly built or reconstructed; heavy trucks account for about 40%, and 11 bus routes (28 stops) are involved.

It is reported that the "14th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai Comprehensive Transportation Development" lists the S16 project as a key corridor for "strengthening Shanghai-Jiangsu riverside connectivity," filling the gap in the interprovincial expressway network in northern Shanghai. After the project is completed, travel efficiency from northern Shanghai (Baoshan, Jiading) to Kunshan and Taicang in Jiangsu will increase by 50%, supporting Baoshan's "northward transformation" strategy and underpinning the coordinated development of the "Shanghai Metropolitan Area."

Source: Xinmin Evening News