The highway network is a partially completed expressway that, when completed, will connect the Chinese mainland with Taipei, capital city of Taiwan, and is a main trunk route in China's national highway plan.
The 2,030-kilometer four-lane highway passes through Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian.
Though local officials speak highly of it, the Jinan section, dubbed a "deadly highway," has long been plagued with safety issues. Since 1999, a four-kilometer downhill road in Manshou Mountain has killed nine people on average per year.
Preliminary investigation showed the section, full of twists and turns, has a sunken road section at the edge of the mountain, which makes it easy for vehicles to turn over, Ji'nan Times reported earlier.
But the contractor has refused to repair the road in spite of authority's demands because it would cost hundreds of millions of yuan, officials said.
Villagers live near the highway even see a potential fortune from the "deadly highway." They have set up lookout towers on top of their houses to monitor the road in order to rush to the accident site in time to earn "rescue fees," the paper said.
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