As China accelerates its drive to establish a world-class modern railway network, a major high-speed railway project in East China's Shandong province has reached a landmark milestone, on track to complete track-laying by mid-June.

As 500-meter-long steel tracks were laid on the ballastless track bed of the Huibin No 2 Super Bridge to mark the official commencement of the track-laying process for the Jinan-Binzhou High-speed Railway on March 10, the 145.2-kilometer HSR noted steady progress in optimizing Shandong's HSR and promoting high-quality economic and social development along the route.

The entire line — allowing trains to run at a speed of 350 km per hour and linking the semi-provincial level city of Jinan and prefecture-level city of Binzhou—will feature six stations: Jinan East, Yaoqiang Airport, Jiyang, Shanghe, Huimin and Binzhou.

A working meeting of China's railway operator China Railway proposed early this year that by 2030, the total operating railway length in China will reach around 180,000 km, including some 60,000 km of high-speed railway, essentially establishing a world-class modern railway network.

Wu Qiufeng, a staffer from State builder China Railway No 4 Engineering Group (CREC4), highlighted that total investment for the Jinan-Binzhou HSR had hit 34.36 billion yuan ($4.97 billion yuan) with a construction period of four years, and expected to be operational by the end of December this year.

Wu noted that in order to ensure the high-quality and efficient progress of track-laying operations, the Lunan High-speed Railway Co under Shandong Railway Investment Holding Group, and CREC4 have carefully organized the track-laying process, and input over 100 sets of specialized mechanical equipment for transport and track-laying, enhancing construction efficiency.

Wu's colleague Guo Ze said the Jinan-Binzhou HSR is a key component of the rapid railway network in northern Shandong, as well as an important link to the nation's "Eight Verticals and Eight Horizontals" HSR network.