On February 3, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Wang Lei, who returned to his hometown in Taihu, Anhui, loaded his car with local specialties and set off with his wife Feng Jiquan and their two-year-old child back to Taizhou, Jiangsu.
After about a 6-hour journey, at 9 PM, they passed through the Hu-Shan Expressway in the He-Ning section and arrived near the Wuzhuang toll station in Quanjiao County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province. “Worried about more vehicles on the return trip tomorrow, we set off after lunch today. The journey was relatively smooth, with basically no traffic jams,” Wang Lei said.
However, at this time, the number of vehicles along the way gradually increased, and from a distance, the rolling traffic resembled a giant dragon winding slowly on the highway.
“As we approach Jiangsu, I was mentally prepared for traffic jams, but I didn’t expect the traffic volume to be this high,” Wang Lei admitted.
To meet the needs of drivers, the toll station was converted into a service area, and the restrooms were opened to the public. Seeing the slow traffic, the child began to cry, and Feng Jiquan got out here to use the tea kettle to prepare milk for the child.
The Hu-Shan Expressway in the He-Ning section is one of the important east-west passages entering Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai through Anhui. The Wuzhuang toll station is adjacent to Nanjing City and serves as a node for exiting Anhui and entering Jiangsu. “Currently, Wuzhuang is the toll station with the highest traffic volume in Anhui,” said Guan Xudong, the station master of Wuzhuang toll station of Anhui Transportation Control Group.Connecting east to west and linking south to north, the Anhui highway network bears significant pressure to ensure smooth traffic. During this year’s Spring Festival travel period, the total traffic volume at the entrances and exits reached 85.2197 million vehicles. On February 3, the traffic volume at the entrances and exits of the Anhui highway network exceeded 6.28 million vehicles, with approximately 126,000 vehicles at the Wuzhuang toll station, both setting historical highs.“We are trying to alleviate the congestion caused by concentrated vehicle traffic by adding access points, maximizing lane usage, and implementing vehicle guidance in advance. At the same time, considering that Wuzhuang toll station is close to the provincial border, we have strengthened the ‘multi-party coordination’ mechanism, enhancing information sharing and coordination with relevant road units, and promptly initiating emergency responses with targeted measures,” Guan Xudong said.While discussing, Zhou Lei, deputy director of the safety department of the Chuzhou central control dispatch of Anhui Transportation Control Group, drove over to inspect the road conditions. With the nearby traffic volume surging, Zhou Lei received instructions from the monitoring sub-center of Chuzhou central control to investigate the source of the congestion on-site.Zhou Lei’s phone frequently received text messages, “These are real-time directive information released by the monitoring sub-center, such as road conditions, speed limits, toll booth closures, accidents, and rescue information. Through this information, various departments can quickly arrange personnel to handle the situation on-site.”Anhui Transportation Control Group continues to enhance all-around, all-time road management to improve the smoothness of the road network. At the same time, it further strengthens technological empowerment, utilizing the ‘Anhui Beautiful Highway Brain’ platform around the clock. By adopting a model of ‘online real-time monitoring and offline timely dispatching’, comprehensive assessments of road network conditions and traffic changes are conducted in real-time, implementing proactive interventions and management measures to effectively balance road network traffic and prevent and reduce congestion. “It’s like giving the highway a smart ‘brain’,” said Chen Mingyu, the monitoring class leader of the monitoring sub-center.“By communicating promptly with relevant departments inside and outside the province and using smart management methods, we will do our utmost to ensure orderly vehicle returns during the Spring Festival period,” said a relevant person in charge of Anhui Wantong Expressway Co., Ltd.
Information Source: Anhui Transportation Control Group, People’s DailyOrganizing Unit: Anhui Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission