Wolong District in Henan Pushes Forward Rural Prosperity Road Construction
Wolong District in Henan Devotes Effort to Building Rural Prosperity Roads
(Agricultural Prosperity Network) With broad, beautiful road surfaces, evergreen roadside trees, and road maintenance workers in uniform attire, walking through the countryside of Wolong District, you will be amazed by the standardization of the district's rural roads. Indeed, in the past 2008, Wolong District wrote a glorious page in road construction: with only just over 20 million yuan in higher-level allocations, it secured and invested 150 million yuan for the year to build more than 260 kilometers of roads, and the mileage of rural roads built was equal to the total of the 14 years since the district was established. Especially in the remote Longxing Township, whose annual fiscal revenue was only one million yuan, 12 million yuan was invested in road construction, an amount equivalent to 12 years of fiscal revenue. In December 2008, when Huang Xingwei, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, went to Wolong District to investigate new rural construction, he fully affirmed the district's approach to accelerating rural road construction, and leaders such as those from the Provincial Department of Transportation also gave high praise during inspections in Wolong District.
In 2006, Wolong District basically achieved the goal of "every village connected" by oil (cement) roads for administrative villages under its jurisdiction, becoming one of the first batches of counties and urban districts in the province to complete the "every village connected" work. But in the past two years, along with the construction of expressways, some rural roads suffered damage to varying degrees, with uneven potholes and disordered broken links in road sections, becoming a difficult problem for people's travel. To solve the difficulty of people's travel, building high-quality rural roads became an urgent task for Wolong District's decision-makers. In early 2008, the district party committee and district government held a mobilization meeting attended by key district leaders, requiring a rapid upsurge in the "general battle for rural road construction" and making specific arrangements and deployments for rural road construction.
Building roads for people's livelihood. Rural road construction first requires a large amount of funds. In addition to 50% provincial subsidy funds, the district government, despite tight finances, initially allocated 18 million yuan specifically for rural road construction, and made a mandatory rule that townships along the routes raise funds themselves for roadbed construction. Each township treated rural road construction as an important opportunity to promote local economic development, overcame numerous difficulties, actively raised funds, and quickly set off a new upsurge in road building. It was clearly specified that the district finance would provide 100,000 yuan per kilometer for rural road construction, and the townships along the routes would be responsible for roadbed works, with target responsibility statements signed with each township. District Party Committee Secretary Tian Xianghe and District Mayor Wang Jibo often went deep into the front lines of road construction to direct on site and solve various difficulties and problems encountered during construction. Chen Tianfu, the deputy district head in charge, listened to reports once every three days and conducted inspections once a week, promptly proposing solutions to difficult problems and conflicts in project construction. In late May, the district also held an "on-site meeting for rural road construction in the whole district" in Longxing Township, and allocated 110,000 yuan to reward advanced townships. All efforts were transformed into astonishing results. On the basis of 83 kilometers of county and township road construction arranged by higher authorities, the district actually built 260.9 kilometers, with a total investment of nearly 150 million yuan.
Building model roads. The district gave priority and prominence to road quality, abandoned the "high speed" that sacrifices quality and efficiency, reshaped the new image of Wolong county and township roads, and truly built rural roads into convenient roads for the people. The leadership team of the district transportation bureau treated rural road construction as the year's central work. The bureau's party committee clearly stipulated that each bureau leader would be assigned a road and bear full responsibility for progress and quality. Except for staff remaining on duty, all personnel from the bureau headquarters went on the roads to supervise. The construction progress of each road was reported and evaluated weekly. Project quality was placed in an especially important position. They established a quality inspection station, selected elite personnel from the entire system and among secondary and tertiary graduates, formed multiple quality inspection teams, and implemented uninterrupted, seamless quality supervision. In project construction, a good atmosphere was formed of comparing drive, progress, and quality, honoring the advanced and being ashamed of falling behind, making every effort to build rural roads into premium projects and reassuring projects.
Building development roads. While emphasizing quality, rural road construction planning was incorporated into the overall plan for building a new socialist countryside, and in combination with tourism development, small town construction, and development planning for mountains, rivers, forests, and farmland, the goals and priorities of rural road construction planning were determined, leaving space for future development. Longxiang Road is an important passage from the urban area to the tourist attraction Qilin Lake, and also an important green corridor for the integration of urban and rural tourism in the urban area. To build this road into a truly scenic avenue, Wolong District upgraded the planned third-class road to a second-class road and extended the mileage to 17.6 kilometers for the entire line, with a total investment of more than 20 million yuan. To leverage Wolong District's advantages of being located in the suburbs and rich in minerals, tourism, and agricultural and sideline products, Wolong District made every effort to create an "integration of agriculture and tourism" sightseeing demonstration road. Centered on National Highway 312, it connected Longxiang Road, Wenren Line, Gou'an Line, and Wang'an Line within the district into a "U"-shaped "civilized demonstration road" of more than 60 kilometers. A county and township road network of 8 vertical and 6 horizontal lines initially took shape, enabling the area north of National Highway 312 to achieve a new layout in which 7 townships including Qiliyuan, Shiqiao, and Xiezhuang are interconnected, and six lakes including Longhu, Qilin Lake, and Lanhu are linked.
Up to now, Wolong District's total mileage of oil (cement) rural roads is 850 kilometers, 42 times that at the time the district was established. Road density rose from less than 20 kilometers per 100 square kilometers to 85 kilometers per 100 square kilometers, entering the city's advanced ranks. Wang Jibo, head of Wolong District, told reporters: "2008 was the year with the longest construction mileage, the largest investment amount, and the highest construction standards since the establishment of Wolong District. The investment amount was almost the sum of rural road construction investment during the '10th Five-Year Plan' period."
In 2006, Wolong District basically achieved the goal of "every village connected" by oil (cement) roads for administrative villages under its jurisdiction, becoming one of the first batches of counties and urban districts in the province to complete the "every village connected" work. But in the past two years, along with the construction of expressways, some rural roads suffered damage to varying degrees, with uneven potholes and disordered broken links in road sections, becoming a difficult problem for people's travel. To solve the difficulty of people's travel, building high-quality rural roads became an urgent task for Wolong District's decision-makers. In early 2008, the district party committee and district government held a mobilization meeting attended by key district leaders, requiring a rapid upsurge in the "general battle for rural road construction" and making specific arrangements and deployments for rural road construction.
Building roads for people's livelihood. Rural road construction first requires a large amount of funds. In addition to 50% provincial subsidy funds, the district government, despite tight finances, initially allocated 18 million yuan specifically for rural road construction, and made a mandatory rule that townships along the routes raise funds themselves for roadbed construction. Each township treated rural road construction as an important opportunity to promote local economic development, overcame numerous difficulties, actively raised funds, and quickly set off a new upsurge in road building. It was clearly specified that the district finance would provide 100,000 yuan per kilometer for rural road construction, and the townships along the routes would be responsible for roadbed works, with target responsibility statements signed with each township. District Party Committee Secretary Tian Xianghe and District Mayor Wang Jibo often went deep into the front lines of road construction to direct on site and solve various difficulties and problems encountered during construction. Chen Tianfu, the deputy district head in charge, listened to reports once every three days and conducted inspections once a week, promptly proposing solutions to difficult problems and conflicts in project construction. In late May, the district also held an "on-site meeting for rural road construction in the whole district" in Longxing Township, and allocated 110,000 yuan to reward advanced townships. All efforts were transformed into astonishing results. On the basis of 83 kilometers of county and township road construction arranged by higher authorities, the district actually built 260.9 kilometers, with a total investment of nearly 150 million yuan.
Building model roads. The district gave priority and prominence to road quality, abandoned the "high speed" that sacrifices quality and efficiency, reshaped the new image of Wolong county and township roads, and truly built rural roads into convenient roads for the people. The leadership team of the district transportation bureau treated rural road construction as the year's central work. The bureau's party committee clearly stipulated that each bureau leader would be assigned a road and bear full responsibility for progress and quality. Except for staff remaining on duty, all personnel from the bureau headquarters went on the roads to supervise. The construction progress of each road was reported and evaluated weekly. Project quality was placed in an especially important position. They established a quality inspection station, selected elite personnel from the entire system and among secondary and tertiary graduates, formed multiple quality inspection teams, and implemented uninterrupted, seamless quality supervision. In project construction, a good atmosphere was formed of comparing drive, progress, and quality, honoring the advanced and being ashamed of falling behind, making every effort to build rural roads into premium projects and reassuring projects.
Building development roads. While emphasizing quality, rural road construction planning was incorporated into the overall plan for building a new socialist countryside, and in combination with tourism development, small town construction, and development planning for mountains, rivers, forests, and farmland, the goals and priorities of rural road construction planning were determined, leaving space for future development. Longxiang Road is an important passage from the urban area to the tourist attraction Qilin Lake, and also an important green corridor for the integration of urban and rural tourism in the urban area. To build this road into a truly scenic avenue, Wolong District upgraded the planned third-class road to a second-class road and extended the mileage to 17.6 kilometers for the entire line, with a total investment of more than 20 million yuan. To leverage Wolong District's advantages of being located in the suburbs and rich in minerals, tourism, and agricultural and sideline products, Wolong District made every effort to create an "integration of agriculture and tourism" sightseeing demonstration road. Centered on National Highway 312, it connected Longxiang Road, Wenren Line, Gou'an Line, and Wang'an Line within the district into a "U"-shaped "civilized demonstration road" of more than 60 kilometers. A county and township road network of 8 vertical and 6 horizontal lines initially took shape, enabling the area north of National Highway 312 to achieve a new layout in which 7 townships including Qiliyuan, Shiqiao, and Xiezhuang are interconnected, and six lakes including Longhu, Qilin Lake, and Lanhu are linked.
Up to now, Wolong District's total mileage of oil (cement) rural roads is 850 kilometers, 42 times that at the time the district was established. Road density rose from less than 20 kilometers per 100 square kilometers to 85 kilometers per 100 square kilometers, entering the city's advanced ranks. Wang Jibo, head of Wolong District, told reporters: "2008 was the year with the longest construction mileage, the largest investment amount, and the highest construction standards since the establishment of Wolong District. The investment amount was almost the sum of rural road construction investment during the '10th Five-Year Plan' period."