At the Jiangsu Provincial Transport Work Conference held on January 7, it was learned that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the province completed 1 trillion yuan of investment in transport infrastructure, making it the five years with the greatest investment intensity and the fastest network expansion.

This year,JiangsuProvince plans to complete 240 billion yuan of transport investment, continuing to advance at a high level.

By 2030, it will basically achieve transport modernization, with its overall transport development level ranking among the top in the country, and it will continue to lead the country in reducing costs, improving quality and increasing efficiency in transport and logistics. A more efficient and smoother modern comprehensive transport system is being built at an accelerated pace, continuously consolidating support and unblocking the arteries for the province's high-quality development. Strengthening foundations and expanding networks to build a new three-dimensional transport pattern 

In 2026, we must get off to a good start and take solid steps in improving the comprehensive three-dimensional transport network, completing 240 billion yuan of fixed-asset investment in transport for the year.

Highway construction will focus on removing bottlenecks and optimizing the structure. Within the year, the expansion project of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway from Guangling Hub to Jingjiang Hub and the Dongtai-Xinghua Expressway will be completed, adding 112 kilometers of expressways and completing 158 kilometers of reconstruction and expansion. For ordinary highways, 400 kilometers of rural roads will be newly built or reconstructed, and 300 rural road bridges will be upgraded. River-crossing channels and railway construction will maintain "acceleration." In 2026, the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Yangtze River Tunnel and the Jianning West Road river-crossing channel will be completed, construction will start on the second Suzhou-Nantong river-crossing channel, and cross-river links will be further densified to help integrated development of both banks. In railways, construction of high-speed rail projects under way will be accelerated, including the North Yanjiang, Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo, Weifang-Suqian, Nanjing-Huai'an, and Yancheng-Taizhou-Wuxi-Changzhou-Yixing lines, and construction will be ensured to start on the Sixian-Suqian section of the Hefei-Suqian railway. In water transport and aviation, efforts will focus on strengthening hubs and raising capacity levels.

In water transport construction, key projects will be accelerated, including the supporting navigation project of the second phase of the Huaihe River Sea-Entry Channel and the second-class waterway regulation of the Sulian Waterway; construction will start on projects including the Lianyungang section of the Sulian second-class waterway, the Yancheng section of the Yanbao Line, the Xin-Chang Railway Bridge section of the Lianshen Line, and the port channel regulation project in the Lianyungang Port area of Lianyungang Port, and construction will start on three "small, fast and flexible" waterways. The Wuxi Airport expansion and reconstruction project and the Gaoyou general aviation airport project will be completed and put into operation, the Changzhou and Yangtai airport expansion and reconstruction projects will be completed, and the Huai'an Airport expansion and reconstruction project will be accelerated. With the strong advancement of a series of high-intensity investments and key projects, by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will strive to achieve a series of medium- and long-term goals: the total mileage of expressways will reach 6,100 kilometers; the province's railway operating mileage will reach 5,700 kilometers, of which high-speed railway mileage will reach 3,600 kilometers; and a total of 28 river-crossing channels will have been built, 7 more than at the end of 2025. 

 Reducing costs and increasing efficiency to smooth the "main artery" of economic circulation Jiangsu has a complete range of transport modes—road, rail, water and air—and the unique advantage of coordinated links among sea, river, lake and canal, which is being transformed into real competitiveness. At Lianyungang Port, wisdom for "saving money" is hidden in each container. The country's first "bonded + export" mixed consolidation model allows small-batch goods to ride along with export containers, saving enterprises an average of 73% in logistics costs per shipment and shortening shipping wait times by more than 15 days. Seemingly minor process reengineering has significantly reduced enterprises' overall transport costs. 

Unblocking the "last kilometer," rural logistics is also quietly upgrading. Through the innovative model of "bus mail delivery + smart vehicle delivery + manual network supplementation," Jiangyan District of Taizhou City has woven a "1-hour logistics circle" across the Jianghuai Plain, enabling efficient delivery of an average of 250,000 parcels per day. Data confirm the results. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince built 42 multimodal transport freight hubs and 5 national-level multimodal transport demonstration projects, stably operated 152 multimodal transport routes, and focused on cultivating 63 premium routes. It opened 124 inland river container routes, inland river container throughput exceeded 2 million TEUs, and rail-water intermodal transport volume grew by an average of more than 15%. Waterway freight volume accounted for about 38.9% of the province's total, about 21.4 percentage points higher than the national average. The coverage rates of county, township and village three-level rural logistics service centers (stations and points) reached 100%, 95% and over 90% respectively. Among them, 5 cases were selected as typical cases of rural logistics development by the Ministry of Transport, and 13 brands were selected as rural logistics service brands by the Ministry of Transport, both ranking first in the country. 

This year,JiangsuProvince will push the reduction of costs and improvement of quality and efficiency in transport and logistics to a new level: stably operating 60 premium multimodal transport routes and completing 3 million TEUs of container multimodal transport volume; building the Lianyungang-Xuzhou assembly center for China-Europe freight trains to high standards, opening 1 new route, adding 1 overseas warehouse, and creating brand container sea-rail intermodal routes such as Lianyungang-Khorgos-Tashkent. 

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will promote the "single document" and "single container" multimodal transport organization models, striving for an average annual growth rate of more than 7% in container multimodal transport volume. It will smooth transport channels for the "new three" products and vigorously develop rail-water (sea-rail) intermodal transport and roll-on/roll-off transport modes for complete new energy vehicles. It will improve urban freight distribution service levels, plan and build a three-level urban distribution network supported by comprehensive logistics centers, public distribution centers and terminal distribution outlets, and promote rural logistics "freight buses" featuring shared warehousing and joint distribution, unified distribution, and fixed times, fixed points and fixed routes. 

Digital and intelligent empowerment to shape a new form of future transport What sparks will fly when transport meets artificial intelligence?

Jiangsu's answer is: in 2026, the two will be integrated in an all-round way to create an important base for developing new quality productive forces. Deepen the application of typical scenarios of "AI + transport." Accelerate the construction of a trusted data space for the industry, build vertical models such as monitoring and early warning, road network dispatch and maintenance decision-making, as well as intelligent agents for road network control, intelligent supervision and safety emergency response, and implement 50 typical application scenarios to high standards. Serve the development of the low-altitude economy. Carry out pilot construction of standardized low-altitude takeoff and landing sites and low-altitude public routes, and launch the Nanjing pilot section of the Yangtze River low-altitude public route as soon as possible. Carry out the second phase of the provincial low-altitude flight service platform, guide Suzhou City to work with surrounding areas to do a good job in the pilot construction of urban air traffic management, and explore the "comprehensive fly-once" model for low-altitude transport. Comprehensively promote digital transformation and upgrading.

Complete the digital upgrading of 2,900 kilometers of highways and 1,700 kilometers of waterways, and achieve smart capacity expansion on 770 kilometers of expressways. Build structural monitoring systems for 600 ordinary national and provincial highway bridges and video surveillance for 300 bridges. Build 240 smart expressway toll stations and realize "mobile phone+" e-road smooth and card-free convenient passage on expressways.

It is worth mentioning that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period,JiangsuProvince will build an intelligent sensing network for highway and waterway operation monitoring, achieve full coverage of structural health monitoring for key monitored bridges on expressways and ordinary national and provincial highways by 2027, and achieve full coverage of bridge monitoring on all expressways and ordinary national and provincial highways by 2029.

A total of about 3,000 kilometers of intelligent sensing facilities for waterways will be built, gradually achieving basically full coverage of intelligent sensing facilities on the "two vertical and five horizontal" trunk waterway network, a 100% coverage rate of electronic navigation charts for graded waterways, and fully built smart ship locks. From roads to waterways, from transport to services, digital technology and the transport system are deeply coupling in Jiangsu.

A smarter, smoother and more considerate modern comprehensive transport system is no longer just a blueprint—it is accelerating along digital tracks toward reality.