Largest Transportation Infrastructure along China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Completed

The Sukkur-Multan section of the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, the largest transportation infrastructure in Pakistan, has been completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

The National Highway Authority of Pakistan issued the certificate to China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the EPC contractor of the highway, on July 23.

The 392-kilometer section has a designed speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Its construction started in August 2016 with a projected construction period of 36 months.

Financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, it is one of the early results of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor program.

The project included construction of 100 bridges, 428 channels, 975 culverts, 11 interflow roads, 12 service areas, 10 rest areas and 22 toll stations as well as installation of greening, traffic safety and ITS systems.

More than 35,000 workers from China and Pakistan participated in the construction.

According to the company, a total of 88.12 million cubic meters of earth-rock and 15 million cubic meters of asphalt concrete were used in the project.

In addition, 5,200 sets of mechanical equipment, 1,181 of them imported from China, were used on the construction site.

As the ITS system has not been promoted in the Pakistan traffic system and the current highways in the country are still operated on different standards, some Chinese intelligent devices were brought in to realize functions like road monitoring, payments and signal management of the motorway.

SBS modified asphalt was used during the construction to solve problems rooted in weather conditions such as high temperature and less year-round rain.

Common asphalt is easily damaged in high temperature but the modified type performs three times better in resisting tracks, high temperature and ageing.

What's more, surveying and mapping technology with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was adopted for the first time in this type of construction, allowing the topographic survey of 392 kilometers to be done in 27 days.

The project has driven industries and economic growth in affected areas and provided jobs and training for local people. The company has also shouldered social responsibilities like offering medical services to nearby villagers and building schools for local students.

The company said that during the project nine schools, 79.6 kilometers of road, 20 bridges, 62 wells and more than 300 ditches were built. Over 7,200 local people accepted voluntary medical treatment and more than 13,200 boxes of medicines were given out.

Meanwhile, the company is also supporting eight Pakistan undergraduates to study in the Wuhan University of Technology, offering them tuition fees, living expenses and insurance covering the four-year study, benefits worth more than 1.5 million yuan ($217,963.06).

The Sukkur-Multan section of the Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, the largest transportation infrastructure in Pakistan, was completed two weeks ahead of schedule. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Hao Wen)