An expressway linking Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, with neighboring Tianjin opened on Tuesday, cutting one-way drive time between the two cities from four hours to three, the Shijiazhuang Bureau of Transport said.

The 233.5-kilometer expressway starts at Jinghai district in Tianjin and ends at Guaijiaopu village in Shijiazhuang, the bureau said. Tianjin is located northeast of Shijiazhuang.

The new road will help promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the development of Xiong'an New Area in Hebei — a new economic zone near Beijing. It will also promote the development of places along the expressway, the bureau said.

The new expressway also connects with some others, including the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway and the Beijing-Taipei Expressway.

As a two-way expressway with six-lanes, the Tianjin-Shijiazhuang route was designed for speeds of 120 kilometers per hour, the bureau said. In the past, travelers need to make a detour from Baoding or Cangzhou in Hebei when driving from Shijiazhuang to Tianjin or the other way around.

The Tianjin-Shijiazhuang Expressway is the first new route to be built in the expressway network centered in Xiong'an New Area, according to a report by Hebei Daily. It added the expressway is a key connection for Tianjin, Xiong'an and Shijiazhuang.