The travel time between Wuhan and Yichang is expected to be shortened to less than 3 hours! Recently, the official land use for the reconstruction and expansion project of the Wuhan-Yichang section of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway (Wuhan Section) has successfully passed the review of the Ministry of Natural Resources, marking that the construction of this project has entered an accelerated phase. As an important part of the "Yangtze River Delta-Chengdu-Chongqing Axis" – the main framework of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network, the project has a total investment of 42.2 billion yuan. It is the largest-scale expressway reconstruction and expansion project in Hubei Province since the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and has also been listed as the key project for the centralized groundbreaking ceremony of major provincial projects in the first quarter of 2025.

To promote the efficient implementation of the project, Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Urban-Rural Construction responded promptly. Starting from February 12, relevant responsible persons of the Bureau led teams to provide on-site services, assisting the land-using unit in sorting out the approval process, clarifying the task list, completing preliminary preparation work, and improving the quality and efficiency of approval. During the approval process, the Bureau strictly implemented the service guarantee mechanism for major projects, and effectively solved difficult issues such as land acquisition compensation through innovative methods such as monthly scheduling and multi-departmental collaboration, ensuring the smooth progress of the approval work.

After the completion of the project, it will greatly ease the traffic pressure in western Wuhan, and the travel time between Wuhan and Yichang is expected to be shortened to less than 3 hours. This is of great significance for promoting the construction of the comprehensive transportation hub in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and will also provide strong transportation support and guarantee for Hubei Province to accelerate the construction of an important strategic fulcrum for the rise of central China.