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The Yangkou Port toll station. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Three heavy transport vehicles carrying newly developed wind turbine blades successfully passed through the Yangkou Port toll station on July 15. This marked the completion of the first large-scale shipment via the newly upgraded dedicated lane.

In early 2025, Jiangsu Jiuding Wind Power Composite's breakthrough in wind power blade technology posed new challenges for regional transport. The company's latest blades, measuring 123 meters in length — nearly 40 meters longer than previous models — significantly increased turning radius and sweep area, rendering existing transport routes inadequate.

As the core hub of Nantong's wind power industry, Rudong handled 285 oversized highway shipments in 2024 alone, including over 500 long-distance cargo trips via the Rudong East Interchange. However, the existing interchange only supported blades up to 80 meters long. Compounding the issue, the interchange's proximity to urban areas created safety risks and disrupted local traffic.

In response, Nantong's Transport Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade implemented five major infrastructure upgrades at the Yangkou Port toll station: rebuilding anti-collision barriers, widening turning radii, modifying channelizing islands to eliminate blind spots, adding dedicated signals for oversized cargo, expanding toll lanes with reinforced roadbeds, and upgrading monitoring systems for real-time visual oversight. After these improvements, the station became Jiangsu's first expressway exit capable of handling oversized cargo up to 130 meters in length.

Alongside these hardware upgrades, Nantong has introduced an efficient oversized cargo inspection service model. Since its implementation, the city completed 331 large cargo inspections in 2024 alone, reducing companies' average transport cycles by 30 percent and significantly lowering logistics costs.