West Hailun Rd Opened to Traffic

West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to North Sichuan Road) is widened and put into use. Photo by Qi Chuanbin

By Qi Chuanbin

Recently, the phase I widening project of West Hailun Road has been fully put into use. The original chaotic road, with a width of only a few meters, has been transformed into a two-way thoroughfare. The one-way traffic of West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to North Sichuan Road) has finally become a history, which not only greatly improves the traffic efficiency of the east-west traffic in Hongkou, but also effectively opens up the last kilometer between Hongkou and Jing'an.

The phase I widening project of West Hailun Road starts from Baoshan Road in the west and ends at North Xingjiaqiao Road in the East, with a total length of 730 meters. It is an old road located in the central area of the district. The narrowest part is only about 5 meters. The dangerous situation of vehicles, non-motor vehicles and pedestrians competing to cross the road is very common. It is also congested in morning and evening peaks. In addition, West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to North Sichuan Road) is one-way traffic. If citizens want to go along Hailun Road to areas including North Hongkou and Jing'an, they have to go through North Xingjiaqiao Road to Dongbaoxing Road, and then enter Baoshan Road, which takes a long time.

In order to effectively solve the problem of the public and improve the regional function, Hongkou has implemented the widening and reconstruction project on West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to Baoshan Road), upgraded the original motor vehicle lane to two-way four-lane road, and the whole road is equipped with non-motor vehicle lanes and sidewalks. The boundary line of roads is between 24 and 30 meters, which is urban secondary trunk road. According to an official of the district construction and management commission, the widening of West Hailun Road will not only facilitate drivers from Hailun Road to Baoshan Road, but also promote the development of surrounding commercial economy.

Due to its location in the old urban area, the underground pipelines of West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to Baoshan Road) are complicated, and it involves the protection of domestic and international communication optical cables of Shanghai Branch of China Telecom Co., Ltd. At the beginning of the construction, the district construction and management commission organized technical personnel from urban power companies and information pipeline units to inspect the site for dozens of times to verify the location and layout of all power and information pipelines above and below the ground in detail, and plan the pipeline layout lines. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. When the construction team excavated pipes, they often encountered the unexpected difficulties like communication cables and gas pipes. Therefore, the original construction scheme failed. "The most difficult one was at the entrance of North Sichuan Road. The underground pipeline scheme was modified for several times for the best route." Project Engineer Cheng Yonghui recalled.

In addition to the widening of the road, the overhead lines that had been covering the sky for many years have completely disappeared, and all kinds of signal poles and wire poles rooted along the road have also been replaced by brand-new black composite poles. According to statistics, the number of poles along West Hailun Road (the section from North Xingjiaqiao Road to Baoshan Road) has been reduced from 110 to 68 after the simultaneous implementation of overhead line grounding and pole integration. The number of poles reduced by more than one third. A clean air environment returned to the public.

In recent years, the widening and reconstruction projects including Zhuzhou Road, Pingliang Road / Yangshupu Road, Tiantong Road and other municipal roads have been completed in Hongkou, which has broken through the intestinal obstruction of road traffic, and the structure of the regional road network has become increasingly perfect. Next, the district will actively promote the orderly development of the phase II widening project of West Hailun Road, strive to complete the whole line widening and reconstruction of West Hailun Road-Hailun Road-Xinjian Road Tunnel as soon as possible, further connect the North Bund and Lujiazui Core Areas across the river, and improve the regional energy level and core competitiveness of the North Bund and even Hongkou.