The main transportation roads in Huaihai Province, including the Xudong Expressway and many national highways and provincial highways across Huaihai Province, are mainly distributed east-west.

The main roads facing north-south along the coastal areas of Huaidong were the Jinghai Highway built in the mid-80s and under the standards of the second-class highway at that time.

As the only provincial main road in the coastal areas of Huaidong, Jinghai Highway is also the lifeline of the economic lifeline of Linhai cities and counties in Huaihai Bay such as Xiapu and Xinjin. In the past decade, the economic industries of Huaihai Bay counties have been mainly distributed along both sides of this provincial road.

This main road completed the paving of asphalt pavement in the early 1990s. The total length along the line was more than 200 kilometers, but the pavement width was only eight to twelve meters.

Although the economic development of Huaidong region lags behind, by this time, the narrow Jinghai Highway was already overwhelmed.

Due to historical reasons, the factories, commercial areas and residential areas along the route have developed intensively along both sides of Jinghai Highway, leaving no sufficient retreat for the widening of Jinghai Highway.

Now the expansion of Jinghai Highway will involve the demolition of five counties and districts and multiple towns along the route, and the demolition cost and workload are astonishingly large.

A relatively pragmatic approach is to transform other longitudinal branch roads outside the Jinghai Highway.

The coastal defense roads built along the breakwater in the 1960s were an option.

Huaihai Bay is one of the important coastal defense outposts. There are many coastal defense outposts, armed police border police stations, and military institutions such as anti-aircraft gun target bases, air force radar observation stations, naval navigation stations and other military institutions.

The coastal defense roads built early have the national defense preparation function for the rapid maneuvering of the army and the smooth transportation of military equipment during wartime.

The Haifang Highway is almost parallel to the Jinghai Highway. It was originally positioned as a branch line of the Jinghai Highway, and was jointly built by the military and local governments.

Now we have to tighten the belt to carry out construction, and the national defense military expenditure has become very tight since the late 1980s. The main sections of the Haidang Highway are still sand and gravel roads, only six or seven meters wide, and the disrepair and damage is relatively serious.

After the large-scale construction of Xinpu, the sections of the Haipong Highway in Xinpu Development Zone were first expanded to high standards and have become one of the first main roads to be built in the industrial park.

However, the ultimate goal of Xinpu Port is to build a comprehensive hub port in the Huaihai Bay area, rather than an industrial port that simply serves local industrial development.

In addition to the horizontal road network construction that is currently being carried out, the vertical road network construction must also be carried out.

This not only can share the pressure of the Jinghai Highway, promote economic development along the Huaihai Bay coastal areas, and improve the layout of coastal industries, but also facilitate the logistics demand in the Huaihai Bay coastal areas, which are concentrated in Xinpu Port to release.

Shen Huai first picked up the coastal defense highway, and he also valued the national defense preparations and the background of military-civilian joint construction. If the military can jointly promote the expansion of this coastal defense highway, in addition to the military being able to withdraw some funds, the military will take the lead in construction and resolve the local resistance that may be encountered to the greatest extent.

Once the coastal defense highway is upgraded from a six or seven-meter-wide sand and gravel access road to an important transportation road along the Huaihai Bay coast, it will naturally promote the military to pay attention to the strategic position of Xinpu Port on the coastal defense outpost; it is also entirely possible to promote the military to build naval equipment and supply bases on a large scale in Xinpu.

Cui Xiangdong and other old classmates were all military and had no strong interest in the economy. However, when Shen Huai mentioned that it was necessary to build coastal defense highways with high standards, it was involved in national defense war preparations, and his eyes were lit.

Chen Huai and local officials were interested in the economic value of this highway after the expansion; while the six or seven meters wide sand and gravel road was converted into a high-grade sea road with a width of fourteen meters wide, and the national defense war preparedness value behind it was the extra attention of old comrades such as Cui Xiangdong.

The old comrades in Xucheng's naval retreat mainly retreated from the Huaihai Fleet and have always been paying attention to the maritime defense construction in the Huaihai Bay and nearby waters.

Cui Xiangdong and other old comrades who are familiar with the unbearable status of the coastal defense road and Jinghai Highway, which are more than 200 kilometers along the north bank of the Zhujiang River in Huaihai Bay, are also aware of the unbearable situation, and have also made suggestions to the Huaihai Fleet, the Navy Department, and the General Secretary many times.

However, in the current environment of relatively severe inflation, military expenditure has not increased for many years. The military is almost unable to pay out the money for repairing warships. Where can I have the spare money to repair coastal combat readiness channels?

Chen Huai now advocates taking the lead from the local government and hopes that the military can participate in the coordinated promotion.

Even though Chen Huai made it clear that this was his "sincere" intention of inviting the old comrades to Yushan this time, the old comrades were no longer subtle and all came to the front to ask about the details.

When the old comrades from the retiring house tomorrow visit Xinpu, there will be a detailed introduction to this aspect. Chen Huai is not in a hurry to reveal his feelings for a moment. He is indifferent to keeping his care and must first lift the appetites of these old comrades.

Seeing that the time was almost the same, Chen Huai thought of getting out. The specific tasks of entertaining the old comrades were responsible for the Yushan County Party Committee and County Government, so he was unwilling to follow the team in an endless manner.

Cui Xiangdong didn't let Chen Huai go easily, grabbed him and said, "The fleet has proposed to build a coastal defense road twice, and several plans have been made. Last month, someone went to the retreat to report on this matter, because some people hope that we old guys can make use of their remaining energy and need supporting funds from the superiors. Now that the local government is willing to invest in the construction, I think there is no possibility that the fleet and the general manager will not cooperate actively, so there is no problem of asking us old guys to do work. Your purpose this time is to be the Xudong Railway duplex project, right?"

"Old man, you are really difficult," Chen Huai smiled. "Xudong Railway, our main goal now is to ensure that the Dongyan payment connected to Xinpu Port will be successfully started next year. The electrification transformation and duplex project of Xudong Railway is too large. To put it in a small amount, it is likely that it will not be able to deal with seven or eight billion, which is not something we can consider now. It is just that it is considered, and the difficulty is too great. It requires repeated weighing to report to you, the old man..."

The east extension project of Xudong Railway is from the terminal station of the Xudong Railway at this time, and the branch railway is built to extend to the Xinpu Port under construction, completing the initial connection between Xinpu Port and the railway network.

Since it is a branch railway, the investment is limited, the survey distance of the entire line is 36 kilometers, which is almost parallel to the Meipu Highway, and the project budget reaches 300 million yuan.

The East China Railway Bureau was unwilling to pay the construction funds, while Chen Huai advocated that Huaineng Group, Meigang, Xinpu Development Group and others should raise funds to establish a joint enterprise to build this branch line.

It is not very difficult for companies such as Huaineng and Meigang to raise funds of 300 million yuan. The province and the city also support this plan. The investors of branch construction are mainly state-owned capital, and there are no policy obstacles, but they still need to obtain permission from the railway department.

However, this problem is not very big. Tian Jiageng proposed to develop Donghua into a comprehensive hub port city, and proposed to develop the comprehensive integration of Huaihai Province's economy, railways, highway networks and ports in a large manner, which is the top priority of the province's recent promotion.

For projects such as the Haiphong Highway, the East Extension of Xudong Railway, the Ministry of Railways, the military can say that there is no funds and no investment in construction, but if the local government raises capital, the Ministry of Railways, and the military obstructs it, the lawsuit will be fought to the State Council, and the Military Commission is not afraid of losing.

However, what Chen Huai really wanted to do was electrification and double-track engineering renovation of Xudong Railway.

The domestic railway department is planning a major railway speed increase. Chen Huai obtained information from the inside. After the speedup, the maximum speed of domestic trains will exceed 130 kilometers per hour. At this time, the speed of trains between Xucheng and Donghua on the Xudong Railway is less than fifty kilometers per hour.

Due to single-line rails, due to the traffic, the train often needs to stop on the fork and wait for a long time before it can continue on the road after waiting for the train opposite.

The mileage from Xucheng to Donghua is more than 200 kilometers, and passenger and freight trucks usually take up to 1 hour or even longer. After all, they can't even reach an average speed of 30 kilometers per hour.

With such traffic efficiency, even if the economy of cities and counties along the Xudong Railway is far from being developed, the transportation capacity is becoming increasingly saturated.

Even if the East Extension Branch Project is passed in the future, Xinpu Port and Xudong Railway will be connected, but there is actually no way to free up too much transportation space.

After the electrification and double-track engineering of Xudong Railway, the transportation capacity can theoretically be increased by eight to ten times, and the traffic speed will also be increased by two to three times, which will become the core aorta in Huaihai Province, and its significance is much more important than the simple Xudong Railway East Extension Branch Project.

The problem is that the investment in the entire project is huge. The East China Railway Bureau currently prioritizes the development of railway networks in developed regions. Even the 300 million yuan of funds for the East Extension Branch Line are unwilling to take out, let alone a huge amount of funds of 600 billion yuan or even nearly 10 billion yuan.

In addition, although Xudong Railway is overwhelmed, it is also the main interest of the Ministry of Railways in Huaihai Province. The East China Railway Bureau cannot say that it will allocate Xudong Railway to localities for electrification and double-track construction.

Chen Huai didn't have the idea of ​​doing a double-track project at the beginning. It was only after his second uncle Song Qiaosheng instructed Song Hongqi to make the phone call that he had some ideas and thought about whether there was a possibility of promotion.

What we really need to promote will be another super project in Huaihai Province in addition to the comprehensive development of Xinpu Port.

Although the coastal defense highway is more than 200 kilometers long, it is only a two-lane facility. The entire expansion project only costs 300 million to 400 million yuan. In comparison, it can only be regarded as a small project.

However, the idea is not mature, so Chen Huai is unwilling to discuss it publicly in front of so many people.

Seeing that Chen Huai was unintentionally talking, Cui Xiangdong kept chasing and said:

"I also think about the reform issues you mentioned in the afternoon. Nowadays, bureaucracy, corruption, pollution, some people become rich first and become unkind. The elderly who retired also noticed these problems. Even quarrels about how to go next. Some people even think that they have to stop and rectify them well. I am old and have been living in China all my life, and have no knowledge. I sometimes feel that I am a little confused when I listen to the old comrades quarrel in my ears every day. It is necessary to go out for a walk. Although there are many noises and many contradictions, we still have to grasp the main contradictions and do our work..."

Why did Chen Huai submit the electrification and duplex renovation project of Xudong Railway at this time? Did he want to use old comrades such as Cui Xiangdong and Liang's old man to pry open the opening of the East China Railway Bureau? Xiao Haomin and others didn't know Chen Huai's intentions.

Although it seems that Chen Huai and him are both county and department-level officials, the super project that Chen Huai is considering, which can be invested in billions of dollars, is not even something he can participate in now.

However, when Cui Xiangdong said the content of the conversation was empty and there seemed to be no exact point. He also felt sensitively that this might mean that they could not reach the outside world. At the same time, Chen Huai and Cui Xiangdong could reach a higher level, there are some differences on how to proceed in the next step of reform and opening up.

It seems that before every important meeting, some disagreement will become more intense.

It is now late autumn in 1996, and the 15th National Congress will be held after the fall of next year.

The central leadership team of the 15th National Congress can only be said to have a general outline. Whether there will be adjustments or changes is closely related to the current controversy.

Xiao Haomin didn't know if the topic Chen Huai and Cui Xiangdong were talking about had something to do with this.
Chapter completed!