China Accelerates Artificial Intelligence Deployment Across Transportation Infrastructure

People's Daily reports that the Guandu Yellow River Bridge is utilizing an intelligent system functioning as an around-the-clock smart attendant to maintain operations. According to Zhang Peng, deputy general manager of Henan Guandu Yellow River Bridge Development Co., Ltd., a drone inspection squadron with two specialized aircraft types was formed in March 2025. Multi-rotor drones handle bridge surface inspections, hazard checks, and three-dimensional modeling, while fixed-wing drones with a coverage radius of 35 kilometers per flight carry out long-distance highway patrols. According to Shan Fei, general manager of Henan Transportation Development Research Institute Co., Ltd., Henan independently developed rapid road condition inspection equipment and created an intelligent highway maintenance platform that has completed automated testing, achieving a hazard recognition accuracy exceeding 90%. To promote industrywide upgrades, seven departments including the Ministry of Transport jointly issued implementation opinions regarding artificial intelligence plus transportation in September 2025, defining a development timetable and roadmap. In 2026, the Ministry of Transport launched an innovation action for typical application scenarios of artificial intelligence plus transportation across ten areas, including autonomous driving, smart highways, intelligent regulation, and smart shipping.

Integrated radar-video equipment enables the system to detect hazards like illegal parking, intrusions, and facility abnormalities during night or heavy fog, linking alarms directly to a three-dimensional model for precise positioning instead of relying on stake-number estimations.