Pathways for the Digital-Intelligent Transformation of Expressways Toward a Value Ecosystem

Abstract

Expressways are evolving from single toll corridors toward a value ecosystem integrating traffic services, industrial development and network synergy, and digital-intelligent transformation provides the opportunity for this transition, though the implementation pathways remain unclear. On the basis of a systematic review of the evolution of road value and the status of digital-intelligent development in the industry, this paper identifies four dilemmas: insufficient value perception, crude traffic diversion, homogeneous derived businesses, and inadequate road-network synergy; and then proposes four pathways: dynamic assessment, precise traffic diversion, digital-intelligent development of scenarios, and collaborative value-added creation, corroborated by national toll road statistical bulletins and typical cases such as differentiated tolling and smart service areas. The study shows that the core of digital-intelligent transformation lies in connecting the value chain of value measurement, precise allocation, scenario monetization and network amplification with data as a key production factor, and that the four dilemmas and four pathways constitute a closed loop from diagnosis to intervention, providing a decision-making reference for operating enterprises to release the three layers of road value, namely road-based value, road-derived value and road-network value.