In 1998, the Asian Development Bank agreed to help finance a 141-kilometer, four-lane, controlled access expressway in Hebei Province, in the People's Republic of China (PRC), that forms a strategic link in the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS). It was also agreed to tackle the accessibility of nine designated poverty counties in Southern Hebei, through which the expressway would run, where the majority of villages do not have all-weather access to the road network, and underemployment rates were high. The US$479 million expressway, with six large bridges, six interchanges, four roadside stations, and eight toll stations, has been in operation since December 2000, nine months ahead of schedule. The project also upgraded 232 km of county connecter roads, constructed 121 km of village access roads, and built 12 km of interchange links. This is the first ADB financed road project in the PRC to use Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques, where people living within the zone of influence of the project selected the location of the local roads component. It was also developed in a sustainable transport planning context. Many studies show a strong link between the improvement of quality of life and development of a sustainable road transport system. The Hebei project, which has been assessed as highly successful, is evidence of that. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214938.
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