In the imperial study room meeting, many ministers of the empire put forward many opinions on the national road network plan, and finally reached a consensus.
The national highway network will become an important supplement to the railway network and should be included in national planning and given financial support.
The empire's transportation network relies on railways, river transportation, and sea transportation. These three together form the empire's main artery for transporting people and materials.
As for cars, they actually function the same as the previous horse-drawn carriages. As short-distance land transportation, they are mostly used in cities and suburbs. In addition, they are used as the main means of transportation in some inland areas without railways or rivers.
However, with the further development of the automobile industry, and at the same time, several major oil companies in the empire have been under policy pressure and have continued to lower oil prices, and the price of civilian gasoline has continued to decline. This has made automobile transportation not only a short-distance transportation force, but also a
As a medium-distance transportation, even long-distance transportation force in some specific areas.
Based on this, the upper echelons of the empire decided to comprehensively upgrade the national official road network to ensure that cars can pass through the official roads and go to any county in the empire.
The official road network of the Tang Empire was very complex and huge. When the empire was first established, it was based on the official road network of the former Ming Dynasty, and the official roads nationwide were expanded and reorganized to ensure that the official roads could pass standard carriages.
And required official roads to lead to every county.
Therefore, every county in the empire today has official roads connecting to other places.
However, these official roads are generally relatively small and have poor road conditions. Being able to pass horse-drawn carriages does not mean that they can pass cars, let alone large freight trucks. Even if they can be passed, poor road conditions will cause the cars to travel slowly and bumpy, which will lead to maintenance costs.
Higher and a series of negative impacts.
But now, the empire's top leaders have decided to change this situation!
According to the national highway network plan finalized by the imperial high-level officials, official roads across the country will be upgraded to ensure that any section of the official road can pass trucks and be connected to every county.
On this basis, different regions upgrade their official roads to different grades of pavement according to their own conditions. For example, those with money can build high-grade asphalt roads or cement roads, and those with money can generally build lime roads.
A mixed road surface of soil and residual oil. In poorer places, a gravel road mixed with sand and clay can be used. If this is not possible, you can also make a dirt road...
In short, each place is allowed to choose different construction plans according to its own conditions.
This is also an objective limitation. After all, the national road network is so huge that it is impossible to build all asphalt roads or cement roads. In that case, there simply will not be so much funds.
Even if multi-level financial joint funding has been determined, with the local county providing part, the state government providing part, the provincial government providing part, and then the Gyeonggi finance department providing another part, the financial pressure is still very high, not only the local government, but the Gyeonggi finance pressure is even greater.
Therefore, the early plan is that the local government will get the bulk of the money for road construction and the Gyeonggi Province will get the smaller part. It is best if the local government spends all the money to build the road.
Therefore, the Ministry of Transportation will not forcefully require hardened roads, but will let each locality determine according to its own situation.
Where there is money, first build a bit of asphalt or cement road, and where there is no money, build a dirt road that is barely passable. These are all possible.
In addition, high-standard toll roads can also be built in some specific areas to alleviate the huge funds required for road construction.
However, opening counties to traffic is a core requirement of the national road network plan!
The national highway network plan launched by the upper echelons of the empire this time is very ambitious in the way of the large-scale railway construction in those days.
When they were engaged in railway construction, the empire also gritted its teeth and made a huge determination. Regardless of whether it had money or not, it would just be repaired. Thus, a national railway network was established.
Today, the railway network of the Tang Empire exceeds 400,000 kilometers, covering all territories of the global empire!
Among them, the "First East-West Railway Line" runs from Shanghai in the east to the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, with a total mileage of more than 10,000 kilometers.
In addition, there are many main railway lines, all of which are thousands of kilometers long. For example, the coastal main lines in the eastern Central Plains region start from Heilongjiang in the north and reach Malacca in the south. There are also railway lines that go south from Central Asia into the Indian Peninsula.
Indian Railways at the southern end.
There is also the West Asia Railway that travels from Central Asia into West Asia, and then all the way to the Mediterranean coast, connecting to the Suez Canal.
Then there’s the East-West Railway in America!
There are more than a dozen similar railway lines alone!
Surrounding these trunk railways, there are countless branch railways, especially in the eastern Central Plains region, the railway network is even denser.
In this way, the empire's railway construction has not stopped. Four years ago, the empire's railway construction reached its peak. The completed railway mileage reached more than 30,000 kilometers that year.
Even if it is slightly less now, more than 10,000 kilometers are added every year.
It is precisely because when the empire was developing railways, it almost spared no expense and was forced to do so.
Now the empire plans to build a nationwide official highway network, which is what it plans to do. Even if it lacks funds, it still has to grit its teeth!
We don’t insist on road grade either. Solve the problem of opening to traffic first, and then talk about improving roads.
Even in this road network plan, there is nothing about a national trunk road network, it is simply about widening and upgrading the original official roads in various places.
Therefore, in the national highway network plan, the overall requirements are not high, as long as the counties can be opened to traffic.
But this kind of low-grade highway is fine and suitable for ordinary places.
But for some wealthy areas with huge demand for road transportation, it is obviously not enough.
For example, the Zhili Sidao area is rich and has a large demand for land transportation. Now the official roads in the Zhili Sidao area are basically gravel roads that can pass cars, and a small part of the roads are cement or asphalt pavements.
.
Although most of the official roads in the Sidao area of Zhili are still full of soil on sunny days and muddy on rainy days, they are still passable by cars anyway, and the road conditions are even considered to be good.
This already meets the road network requirements proposed by the Gyeonggi Ministry of Transportation.
If the road network construction plan is to be continued in this place, then the road surface must be hardened!
But in fact, this matter does not require the Gyeonggi Ministry of Transportation to come forward. They have already started taking action themselves. Gangnam Province and South Anhui Province have already had their own highway network plans, and they are widening and straightening the original official highways.
The slope is lowered and residual oil is finally paved to form a road with gravel roadbed and residual oil pavement.
Although the grade of this hardened road surface is not as good as the high-grade asphalt gravel road along the river in Songjiang Prefecture, it is pretty good for long-distance highways in this era.
In other words, whether it is Gangnam Province, Wannan Province, or Chengcheonfu where Gyeonggi Province is located, there is actually no need for the Ministry of Transportation to promote any road network plan, they can handle it themselves.
But the problem is that even so, these ordinary road networks will be difficult to meet the needs of future automobile transportation.
Those hardened roads are all winding and steep in order to connect the counties and towns along the way. Even if Jiangnan Road lays hardened roads from Shanghai to Jinling City in the future, it may not be possible to drive from Jinling City to Shanghai.
I couldn't reach it for a few days, and I even fainted while running.
Moreover, the Zhili Sidao area, especially Jiangnan Road, Chengtianfu, and Wannan Road south of the Yangtze River, has a developed economy, affluent people, a huge number of cars, and is also the area where automobile transportation develops the fastest.
Moreover, the local car ownership continues to increase significantly. At the same time, car transportation will become the main tool for local short- and medium-distance land transportation. This makes local officials in Jiangnan Province very worried, because the existing road network plan, even if it is carried out,
Once the road surface is hardened, it may be difficult to meet the demand in five or ten years.
They have an urgent need for a better road system!
Especially trunk roads that directly connect to surrounding cities.
Under this circumstance, Jiangnan Province, South Anhui Province, and Zhejiang Province jointly submitted an application for the construction of a super highway around Taihu Lake, planning and building a trunk highway that surrounds Taihu Lake and connects Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Jinling, and Wuhu.
The Ministry of Transportation saw it and thought it was a good thing and approved it directly. However, the Imperial Ministry of Transportation did not intend to give money. You have to solve the funding problem yourself!
This made the local officials in the above three places furious!
Why do other places have Gyeonggi funds to subsidize road construction, but we don’t get any when we build a road?
Officials from the Ministry of Transport are too lazy to pay attention to them. The project funds of the National Highway Network Plan are not targeted at wealthy places like Zhili Fourth Road, but at underdeveloped areas, especially inland areas without trains or rivers.
The purpose is to initially solve the traffic problem in areas with traffic difficulties, not to build ultra-high-standard trunk roads for wealthy areas...
If you have money, you can repair it yourself...
Gyeonggi didn’t give money, so the two provinces, one prefecture and one government fell out internally first!
For example, Jiangnan Road doesn't care whether the road from Hangzhou to Wuhu is repaired or not. They only care about the road from Wuhu to Shanghai, and at most they can add another road from Shanghai to Hangzhou.
As for Hangzhou, they don't care about the consolidation of the area from Shanghai to Wuhu. They only want the highways from Hangzhou to Shanghai and from Hangzhou to Jinling.
In short, each country had its own plans, and in the end it was natural for them to fall out!
After the falling out, the local tycoon Jiangnan Dao was very unhappy and ignored the poor brothers. He planned to take matters into his own hands!
Ever since, the Jiangnan trunk highway plan from Shanghai to Zhenjiang was launched!
I looked over at Chengtian Mansion and said, OK, I will also build a trunk road within Chengtian Mansion, and I won't care about the other things.
Wannan Road took a look, then calculated the funds in hand, and finally gritted his teeth and prepared to build a southern Anhui trunk road to connect Wuhu with Chengtian Mansion in the east.
As a result, everyone built their own, and the main highway from Shanghai to Wuhu appeared...
But when I looked at Hangzhou in the south, I thought, Oh my god, you guys are not authentic at all, why did you leave me behind...
As a result, we went back to Chengtianfu, Wannan Road, and Jiangnan Road, and tried to build a trunk road from Shanghai to Hangzhou, and then a trunk road from Hangzhou to Jinling City or Wuhu. There was a funding problem, and each was responsible for the highways within their territory. In the end
Just connect them.
Then a main highway in northern Zhejiang also appeared.
Finally, less than two months after the four companies fell out over the Taihu Lake Trunk Highway plan, the new Taihu Lake Trunk Highway emerged after the trunk railways built by the four regions were connected.
This situation makes the surrounding melon-eaters feel extremely pained to see it. If it has been like this for a long time, why were you making such a fuss earlier...