What changed
Construction began on the 152-kilometre Zhanjiang section of the Lanhai Expressway in Guangdong on October 29. Expected to open in 2030, the four-lane route will run from Lianjiang through Suixi and Leizhou to Xuwen, with 11 interchanges, 125 bridges and a design speed of 120 kilometres per hour.
It is being built as mainland China’s second highway link to Hainan Island, alongside the G15 Shenhai Expressway’s 13.7-kilometre Haikou section, which opened at the end of 2022.
Why it matters
This is more than another road across Guangdong. It changes the shape of the approach to the Qiongzhou Strait, adding a second high-speed route toward Xuwen Port and Hainan’s Free Trade Port.
The difficult part is not simply laying asphalt. The road crosses a typhoon-prone coastal plain with heavy rain, soft foundations and high-liquid-limit soil. Engineers plan to use a smart-site laboratory, prefabricated construction methods and full reuse of about 8 million cubic metres of difficult soil. That makes the project a test of how reliably major transport infrastructure can be built in demanding coastal terrain.
The route is also being designed as a corridor through the Leizhou Peninsula, with landscapes and features reflecting its farmland, historic towns, red soil and coast. If construction stays on schedule, the result by 2030 will be a second highway approach to the ferry system, with the strongest practical gains likely to depend on how the new road connects with Xuwen Port and the wider highway network.
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