The expressway was created in segments, starting in
Hebei. The challenge was how to cross the
Guanting Reservoir. Initial plans avoided bridges and instead routed traffic around the reservoir. In the end, a bridge across the Guanting Reservoir was built, shortening the expressway's total distance. The Jingzhang Expressway's final segment—linking it to the
Badaling Expressway—was completed in November 2002. As of that moment, traffic could flow directly from
Beijing through to
Zhangjiakou in the form of a direct expressway. Previously, traffic entered the expressway bound for Zhangjiakou only at the Tumu toll gate (later disused), from Beijing.
August 2010 traffic jam Even though this initial traffic jam was solved, poor road conditions persisted for years. And in August 2010, one of the longest traffic jams ever recorded lasted more than ten days. Lorries carrying supplies to help road construction and ease congestion around the city were one of the main causes for the traffic jam. Roughly 100,000 travelers ended up in the traffic jam. Throughout the whole traffic jam vendors sold drivers and passengers food and water as they waited for the whole ordeal to end. Potential trouble spots included: • Guanting service area • Toll gates (on the expressway, not at the individual exits) • Major checkpoint at
Kangzhuang, Beijing At the toll station in Daijiaying, and at every exit in the Beijing direction, road signs urged drivers to use
China National Highway 110 instead of the Jingzhang Expressway. The traffic jam meant that usual two-hour trip from
Zhangjiakou to
Beijing took nearly two days instead. These traffic jams continued on and off well into 2005. As a result, a second expressway linking Beijing to Zhangjiakou is in the plans. The main reason for the jams was bureaucracy. At every change of jurisdiction, there was a toll gate where lorries not only paid their tolls but also underwent weight examinations. The issue was every province had different standards and did not recognise the certificates issued from toll gates in other provinces claiming that the lorries were not overloaded, forcing trucks to redo the test in every province. Beijing enforced a very low tolerance and forced even passenger cars to undergo the weight examination. If a lorry was overweight, it had to unload and pass through the test again. Few people cooperated, instead willing to sit it out by parking their lorries on the hard shoulder of the
expressway. The average time it took for a lorry to get through the test varied from five to 50 minutes, depending on the results. ==Road conditions==