On September 12, the executive meeting of the Sichuan Provincial Government examined and adopted the Sichuan Expressway Network Planning (2019-2035). Reporters learned from Sichuan Transportation Department that according to the Planning (Draft for Review), after the adjustment, the planned expressway routes of the Sichuan will be increased by 4,100 kilometers, and the inter-provincial exits will be increased by 23 to 63, thus making the area density of expressways in Sichuan higher than the national and western average. By 2035, every county in Sichuan will have access to expressways, except those in particularly difficult areas that can only be connected by "high-speed" roads.

　　Change 1: Extension of planning period by 5 years

　　Sichuan's current expressway network planning was approved and implemented by the provincial government in 2014, with a total planning scale of 12,000 kilometers and a planning period ending in 2030. After the planning adjustment, the planning period is extended to 2035, with the total scale of expressways reaching 16,100 kilometers, adding 4,100 kilometers of planned routes.

　　What for? The relevant person in charge of Sichuan Transportation Department explained that by 2035, China will basically build itself into a traffic powerful country. The planning period is adjusted to 2035, which can better support and serve our province's integration into the national major strategy and lead the way for Sichuan to help build a traffic powerful country. Secondly, in order to better implement the deployment of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, speed up the construction of a "four-direction and eight-corridor" strategic comprehensive transportation corridor, and better serve the strategic deployment of "one center with multiple pivots, five-zone-coordination", and "four-direction expansion, all-out opening". The revised planning also studied a number of new inter-provincial expressway projects to better align plans and better support regional openness and cooperation.

　　It is planned that by 2020, Sichuan will have 8,500 kilometers of expressways and 25 access roads to and from Sichuan; By 2025, the mileage of expressways completed and under construction will reach 14,000 kilometers; By 2035 or so, the entire province's expressway network will be fully completed, with the inner regions fully covered with county-level node expressways, the three prefectures fully covered with "high-speed" roads, and counties connected by fast roads.

　　Change 2: Denser expressway network

　　According to the Planning (Draft for Review), after adjustment, the entire province's expressway network will be improved from the original "16, 8, 8" network (16 radial roads, 8 longitudinal roads, 8 horizontal roads, 4 ring roads, 20 connecting roads) to the "18, 9, 9" network (18 radial roads, 9 longitudinal roads, 9 horizontal roads, 4 ring roads, 34 connecting roads). The expressway area density will reach 3.31 kilometers per 100 square kilometers, higher than the national and western average.

　　Based on the 2014 edition planning, the new edition planning optimizes and adjusts 14 originally planned expressways such as Chengdu to Yibin, and adds 29 expressways such as Jiuzhaigou to Ruoergai, and also adds planning study of 9 "high-speed" roads such as Ma'erkang to Ya'an. After adjustment, the layout of the province's expressway network is more reasonable and its supporting effect is more obvious. The total number of outward passages will be increased, with provincial exits increasing by 23 to 63 compared with the original planning. The capacity of outward passages will be greatly improved; The role of the hub will become more prominent. Chengdu's radial roads will all have double tracks or expressways with six lanes or above. Tianfu International Airport will form a "one-ring with multi-radial" expressway network. A comprehensive transportation hub system with international hubs as its core, portal hubs as its fulcrum and regional hubs as its nodes will be further improved; The coverage will be significantly improved to form a provincial expressway network featuring "one center with multiple ring radials, multiple pivots efficient networking, and convenient connection in Tibetan areas". 95% of county-level nodes will be connected by planned expressways, and 10 counties in Tibetan areas in northwest Sichuan will be covered by "high-speed" roads; The emergency support is safe and powerful, and the multi-path selection among important nodes is basically realized. All municipal (prefecture) government locations will form 4 or more directions of expressway access, significantly improving the mobility and reliability of the road network.