Shanghai has an expansive grade-separated highway and expressway network consisting of 16 municipal express roads, 10 provincial-level expressways, and 8 national-level expressways. Three municipal expressways and four provincial-level expressways are also under construction.
Most municipal express roads are found in the inner districts of Shanghai, including several elevated highways which run directly above surface-level roadways. In Chinese, these expressways are literally termed city high-speed roadways (), and their maximum speed is typically . These are still considered expressways or controlled-access highways because of the presence of ramps, grade-separated junctions, and the absence of traffic lights. Most of these expressways are elevated and run above a lower-speed roadway. The Inner Ring Road is a beltway, while the Middle Ring Road, is also a beltway.
These are primary express roads that form a major backbone of expressways within the city core. Of these four, the Inner Ring, NorthâÂÂSouth, and Yan'an Elevated Roads form a ç³ (a Chinese abbreviation for Shanghai) shape. The Middle Ring forms a second orbital surrounding the Inner Ring Elevated Road, and is fully complete. The ç³ shape was originally partial until the recent completion of the Pudong Avenue Ground Way.
These are other express roads that serve as part of the municipal expressway network. Of these, six belong to the Hongqiao Comprehensive Transportation Hub, a network of municipal expressways serving Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.
In Shanghai, there are restrictions on foreign license plates, temporary license plates, drivers with probationary licenses, and taxis not carrying passengers to drive on many municipal elevated roads. This ban is enforced by the police, and affects every day except Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays. They came into effect on November 2020.
The affected expressways include:
Furthermore, there is a prohibition affecting the same categories, within any point inside the Inner Ring Elevated Road and the roads it is with.
Designations for provincial-level and federal-level expressways in Shanghai had the letter prefix A before the number of the expressway. Starting at the Yingbin Expressway, which was designated the number 1, the numbers increased clockwise around the city. For ring expressways, the designations A20, A30, A40, etc., were used. For expressways connecting to other provinces which already had national designations (beginning with the letter G), designations with the letter A were attached.
In August 2009, Shanghai replaced its system of naming expressways with the prefix A with the letter prefix S, in order to conform to the standard designations for provincial-level highways within China. The S means Shengdao, or provincial-level roads. The letter prefix A was abolished.
National highways and expressways in Shanghai both have the prefix G, an abbreviation for Guodao (), which literally means National roads. It is important to note that both grade-separated, controlled-access expressways and normal at-grade highways both have the prefix G. Only the national-level expressways are mentioned here. National-highways which are at grade and not controlled-access are also found in Shanghai, and these include G204, G312, G318, and G320. Expressways also have green-coloured signs while their highway counterparts have red-coloured signs.
Shanghai has one bridge-tunnel crossing spanning the Yangtze Delta to the north of the city. The G40 ShanghaiâÂÂXi'an Expressway follows the Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel from Pudong to Changxing Island, and then over the Shanghai Yangtze River Bridge from Changxing to Chongming Island and finally via the ChongmingâÂÂQidong Yangtze River Bridge from Chongming to Qidong in Jiangsu Province on the north bank of the river. A second fixed crossing is planned to the west of this bridge, and will become part of the S7 ShanghaiâÂÂChongming Expressway.