A bus drives across the Nanpuxi Bridge, a section of the new expressway, in Taishun county, Zhejiang province, on Dec 22. SU QIAOJIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

The expressway connecting Wencheng and Taishun counties in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province officially opened to traffic on Dec 22.

High-speed road transport is now available to the people of Taishun for the first time in history, and all Zhejiang counties have now been connected to expressways.

The Wencheng-Taishun expressway, 55.96 kilometers in length, cost a total of 10.93 billion yuan ($1.66 billion) to build. Along the route are five interchange hubs in the seats of Wencheng county, Shanxi town, Nanpuxi town, Youcun town, and Taishun county, respectively.

The highway passes through steep mountains in southwestern Zhejiang, with its average altitude sitting at 500 meters. Seventy-two percent of the highway's sections are either bridges or tunnels, and it is one of the most difficult highway projects ever undertaken in Zhejiang.

Construction on the highway started in January 2018 under the leadership of Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co.