Unblock Corridors and Strengthen Hubs: Hubei Accelerates Building a Strong Transportation Province by Relying on Three "1-Hour Traffic Circles"

　　Recently, the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Hubei Province's Modern Comprehensive Transportation System" was released. For the first time, the plan establishes the province's three 1-hour traffic circles as a core goal, driving the construction of the province's comprehensive multidimensional transportation network and helping accelerate the building of a strong transportation province.

　　The plan specifies that by 2030, one-hour access will be basically achieved from Wuhan-Xiangyang-Yichang to cities and prefectures, from cities and prefectures to county seats, and from county seats to major towns and townships. At the same time, a national "123" travel circle and a global "123" express freight logistics circle will be built. In terms of key indicators, the total expressway mileage will exceed 10,000 kilometers; expressways with six or more lanes will reach 3,000 kilometers; the operating mileage of high-speed railways will reach 3,600 kilometers; and the completion rate of the main skeleton of the national comprehensive multidimensional transportation network will rise to 100%.

　　Hubei will build five major networks—high-speed rail, high-grade waterways, expressways, airport clusters, and port clusters—and advance the implementation of major projects such as the new Three Gorges water transport channel. It will coordinate the construction of express networks, trunk networks, and basic networks, shore up shortcomings in river-crossing channels and the road network of the Jianghan Plain, strengthen the shipping center in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, improve comprehensive freight hubs, and enhance rail-water-road-air multimodal transport, providing solid transportation support for the rise of the central region.