Working Against The Clock

Working Against The Clock

Every day Pei Rui, a 30-year-old project supervisor, goes to the construction site of the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway in Beijing to inspect the work and discuss its progress with other staff members. Though Pei’s job title is director of the project management security department, he is actually in charge of all procedures of the Beijing leg of the project.

The Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway, to open to traffic in 2020, will link Beijing with Qinhuangdao, a port city in northern Hebei Province. The construction started in November 2016.

Pei and his colleagues are in charge of the 6-km stretch in Beijing. Although it’s not a long segment, the work is dif ficult and urgent, which means a lot of pressure for the workers.

This summer, for instance, it rained a lot in the capital. To ensure the work progressed safely and the quality of the construction was maintained, the workers had to wait for the rain to stop, which added to the dif ficulties in finishing the construction in time.

“I get anxious when it rains,” Pei said.“I have to then make sure that the delay is made up.”

The Beijing part of the expressway, one of the capital’s key projects this year, is intended to improve the expressway network, and regional traf fic conditions and the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Once the new expressway is opened, the distance between Beijing and Qinhuangdao, which is also a famous tourist destination, will be halved to around two hours.

Last year, the government announced it would move some of the municipal authorities’ functions to a satellite area east of Beijing. Once the sub-center in Tongzhou District is completed, it is expected to create heavy traf fic in that direction. So the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway will help ease the pressure.

(Photos by Wei Yao)

1. Workers construct one of the expressway’s ramps

2. Pei Rui (left) discusses the project’s progress with a colleague on August 22

3. Earthwork—processing the ground surface by excavating or bulldozing to create an even surface—is the most dif ficult and time-consuming part in the construction of the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway

5. Pei Rui (left) and his team set up provisional footholds for workers after heavy rain

4. A worker takes a breather from welding steel rods underground