During the May Day holiday, the construction of major engineering projects in many places has not stopped. The builders stick to the front line, aim at the nodes, work hard, seize the construction progress, and ensure the high-quality and efficient progress of the project. Analysis points out that as project construction and funds gradually accelerate, infrastructure investment in the second quarter is expected to be further accelerated.

  On May 4, at the construction site of the Beijing Urban Sub-Central Station, the largest underground comprehensive transportation hub project in Asia, nearly 200 builders built by China Railway Construction are carrying out construction work such as stone, walls and ceiling decorative panels in the station, and comprehensively promote indoor electromechanical and decoration and other aspects. The top decoration of the largest lighting well at the station is basically completed.

  It is understood that the comprehensive transportation hub of Beijing Urban Sub-Center Station is an important node of "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei on the Rail". It is planned to be basically completed by the end of 2025. It will achieve direct access to Capital Airport in 15 minutes, direct access to Daxing Airport and Tangshan in Hebei 35 minutes, and reach Xiongan New Area and Tianjin Binhai New Area in 1 hour.

  Thousands of miles away, the construction of Zhejiang Tiantai pumped storage power station has also made new progress. On May 2, the power station unit No. 1 successfully completed the rotor lifting, marking that my country's largest single-unit pumped storage unit has entered the final assembly stage, laying the foundation for the first power plant to be put into production and power generation by the end of this year.

  As a key implementation project of the country's "14th Five-Year Plan", the total installed capacity of Zhejiang Tiantai Pumped Storage Power Station is 1,700 MW, and a total of 4 pump and wheel generator sets with a single capacity of 425 MW are installed. After completion, the annual power generation is expected to be about 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours, mainly supplying the Zhejiang power grid and providing flexible power supply for the East China power grid, which will effectively assist the consumption of new energy and ensure the safe and stable operation of the power grid.

  "The Tiantai pumping and storage power station has achieved three 'first time' in the industry, namely, the first large-scale application of 1,000 MPa hydropower high-strength steel, the first to adopt low-heat cement in the pumping and storage industry, and the first to carry out research and application of intelligent dam building technology in the dam surface, which has reserved key technologies for promoting the development of my country's hydropower industry." said Jing Maogui, head of Zhejiang Tiantai pumping and storage company of Sanxia Construction Group, which belongs to Sanxia Group.

  Major projects are the "ballast stone" of economic development and an important means to expand investment. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that with the acceleration of the issuance and use of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and local government special bonds this year, the construction of the "two-fold" projects has accelerated, and the growth rate of infrastructure investment has accelerated. In the first quarter, infrastructure investment increased by 5.8% year-on-year, accelerating by 0.2 percentage points from January to February; it drove the growth of all investment by 1.3 percentage points, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from January to February.

  The second quarter is regarded as a key window period that affects the economic trend throughout the year. Many places and fields are making every effort to promote the construction of major engineering projects, stabilize the scale of effective investment, and improve investment efficiency.

  Taking the transportation field as an example, the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has been further improved in quality, and the expansion and renovation of busy sections of expressways such as Shanghai-Chongqing-River High-speed Railway, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao and other expressways, the construction of a number of major engineering projects such as the container terminal of Xiaoyangshan North Operation Area in Yangshan Port District, Pinglu Canal, and Beijing Urban Sub-Center Station Comprehensive Transportation Hub are progressing smoothly. The preliminary work of projects such as the Xin-Tibet Railway, the Capital Region Ring Line G95 Project, the G3033 Kuitun to Dushanzi to Kuche Expressway, the Three Gorges Water Transportation New Channel, and China Post Second Aviation Hub (Zhengzhou) is being accelerated, and construction is being started within the year.

  While the construction of major projects is accelerating, financial support is also increasing. On April 24, the first ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2025 were officially tendered and issued. Budget arrangements show that my country plans to issue 1.3 trillion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds this year, an increase of 300 billion yuan from 2024. Among them, 800 billion yuan will be used to support the construction of "two-level" projects with greater efforts.

  Luo Zhiheng, chief economist and director of the research institute, said that further accelerating the issuance and use of local government special bonds and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds will help form practical work as soon as possible and expand total demand.

  According to a research report by CICC, infrastructure is an important tool to stabilize growth, and it is expected that broad infrastructure investment in the second quarter will remain at a high of around 10% year-on-year. China Galaxy Securities Research Report predicts that infrastructure will continue to play an active role in expanding effective investment, stabilizing the economic market, and promoting effective quality improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy in the second quarter. (Wang Lu)

[Editor in charge: Nie Jing]