Shihua Rd to support business district, ease traffic

New road construction between Baishi and North Guihua roads in Gongbei would ease pressure on Jiuzhou Avenue and provide a street network for commercial clustering and development, says the Zhuhai Highway Bureau.

Project details for an extended 644 m (705 yd) of West Shihua Road are posted online through March 18 pending a final decision by the bureau.

The site is located in the Beiling area south of New Yuanming Palace across Jiuzhou Avenue. The area is dense with office and commercial buildings including the Midtown Urban Business Complex.

Midtown covers a total floor area of 270,000 sq m (67 acres), including the Fashion streets of 70,000 sq m (17.3 acres), Pullman Hotel, twin-tower Grade-A office building, and exquisite apartments. It integrates tourism, relaxation, shopping, catering, entertainment, and business. Midtown promotes a lifestyle-changing fashion culture to tourists.

According to the Highway Bureau, the west section will consist of a dual four-lane road while the east will have one lane each way. Greater departmental coordination is needed before approval so that construction can begin as early as this year.

East section of West Shihua Road in Gongbei [Photo courtesy Zhuhai Daily]

The project promises to improve transportation in the Jiuzhou Commercial Center. Shihua Road runs east-west south of Jiuzhou Avenue. It stretches from Yingbin Road in Gongbei to Lovers Avenue in Jida near the Zhuhai Holiday Resort Hotel.

Meanwhile, a series of reconstructions is already under way. For example, the former Singyes Glass Factory is being renovated. Meanwhile, the former factory of Livzon Pharmaceutical Group is being demolished to make room for an urban complex that encompass school, housing, hotel, and office buildings. This will contribute to formation of the Jiuzhou Avenue High-End Service Industry Cluster, announced an official with the Xiangzhou District government.

These projects are pinpointed in the 2017 Annual Construction Report published by the Housing & Urban-Rural Planning & Construction Bureau last June. It calls for the transformation of old towns, villages, factories, and residences into new urban areas, industry clusters, and communities.