143 urban infrastructure projects (including roads and bridges, landscaping and municipal public infrastructures) are planned for this year. It was learnt yesterday from the Yichang Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development that, by the end of March, 1.6 billion yuan has been invested in 80 projects – about 56% of the total. The construction of the on-going projects, such as the Miaozui Yangtze River Bridge, the Vocational Education Park, the comprehensive improvement of canals, the Chachang Road and the Heyi Road, have been going on smoothly. 7l key projects such as the BRT project at Dongshan Avenue, the Bolinhe Road and the improvement of electric power circuit at No. 1 Jiangnan Road have started.

　　Urban Roads

　　Dianjun Avenue (Miaozui Bridge to Railway Bridge part) project has completed 620,000 cubic meters of stone and earth work, refilled 410,000 cubic meters of earth and stone and built 119 pile foundations and 2 pile caps for the bridge. In Xiazhou Avenue project, the construction designs and all the preliminary examinations and approval work are completed and the temporary bridge openings are under construction. As for the BRT and road upgrading work in Dongshan Avenue, 5 T-billboards in the underpass have been removed and the transplanting of trees in the underpass and the second section of the avenue have been basically completed. The fence construction at No. 1Xiling Road and No. 4 Shengli Road has been finished. 40% of earthwork and 25% of stonework have been fulfilled for the underpass of Dongshan Avenue.

　　Bridges and Parks

　　For the Miaozui Yangtze River Bridge, 98 meters of the main pylons on both sides (Jiangnan and Xiba) of the Dajiang Bridge have been built. At the Jiangnan side, the installation of anchorage, anchor beam and anchor bolt have been completed; at the Xiba side, the earth and rock excavation and the first concrete pouring of the baseboard have been completed. For Sanjiang Bridge, the construction of lower pylon columns of the main pylon of both Xiba side and Jiangbei side has been completed and 88 piers of the approach bridge, 10 pile caps and 4 pier bodies have been built. In addition, 25 million yuan has been invested in the construction of Dongshan Park, Chengdong Park and Moji Hill Park, which all belong to the Increasing Green Sceneries Project.

　　Based on the current construction, the second quarter will be the peak period to start the projects as it is planned that 21 projects will be started with a total investment of 5.65 billion yuan within this period. Among these projects, 13 are road projects such as the Dianjun Avenue (Railway Bridge to Shuangshi Road part), the Juxiang Road and the viaduct of No.2 Xiling Road, 5 are greening projects, beautifying and lighting projects and 3 are river regulation and sewage pipe network projects. (Reporter Zhao Wei, correspondent Yi Jianxuan)