The Ministry of Transport issued JTG/T 3603—2026 Technical Guidelines for Smart Construction Sites of Highway Projects on June 26, clarifying that this specification shall be mandatorily implemented starting August 1, 2026. All temporary mixing plants, mobile mixing stations and ready-mixed concrete supply stations self-built for newly-built, reconstructed and expanded expressways, national and provincial trunk highways and high-speed railway supporting highway projects must realize informatized network upload of production data. Projects with incomplete data collection or systems not connected to supervision platforms will not be eligible for measurement payment or handover acceptance. As the first mandatory standard for smart mixing plants in the transportation sector, this rule forms a complete digital supervision closed loop for mixing stations, shifting the industry from manual extensive management to a new phase of data-driven, traceable full-process control.
Centered on source control of concrete quality, the new standard sets three rigid digital requirements. First, real-time upload of production mix proportions: mixing plant control systems shall connect to the smart supervision platform for transportation projects. Raw material consumption, mix proportion parameters, mixing duration and discharge time of every single batch of concrete are automatically uploaded to the cloud. The system automatically locks abnormal mix ratios to eliminate quality risks including arbitrary manual adjustment of formulas and under-dosing of cement. Second, full traceability over transportation: all concrete tankers shall be equipped with GPS positioning and anti-water-addition monitoring cameras. Driving routes, unloading locations and illegal water injection behaviors are fully recorded to completely solve the industry-wide problem of on-site water dilution that weakens concrete strength. Third, online archiving of raw material inspection records: incoming test reports, sample retention logs and certificate scans of sand, gravel, cement and admixtures are all entered into the system to create full-chain electronic archives covering "raw material intake – production – transportation – pouring". Quality assurance documents can be retrieved with one click, greatly lowering the risk of falsified acceptance materials.
The standard imposes the most direct impact on temporary mixing plants for infrastructure projects. Previously, temporary mixing stations built for highway and railway projects generally suffered from rudimentary equipment, paper-based ledgers, incomplete data storage and difficult supervision. Some projects simplified quality control procedures to cut costs, creating hidden safety hazards for bridge and road structures. After the new standard takes effect, temporary mixing plants with short construction cycles and high mobility must install intelligent control systems, IoT data acquisition modules and video monitoring equipment to connect with supervision interfaces. Many construction enterprises phased out outdated semi-automatic mixing equipment in batches and purchased fully automatic HZS intelligent mixing machines with data networking functions. Mobile mixing stations are also equipped with standard cloud upload modules to balance construction flexibility and regulatory compliance.
With overlapping policies, a nationwide full-chain supervision network for ready-mixed concrete quality is taking shape rapidly. In addition to mandatory transportation industry codes, the housing and urban-rural development department issued supporting documents on closed-loop quality supervision for ready-mixed concrete. Regions including Xinjiang and Yunnan require mixing plants for housing and municipal works to upload production data to construction quality safety platforms. Four new national standards for admixtures (GB 46039—2025) will also be implemented in August, strictly limiting formaldehyde and ammonia emissions from admixtures to secure concrete quality from auxiliary materials. Under the dual supervision framework, mixing plants bear tightened primary quality responsibilities. Enterprises must establish long-term mechanisms including standardized laboratory management, regular equipment calibration and electronic ledger archiving, shifting quality control from post-production random inspection to a full-process model featuring pre-warning, real-time monitoring and post-event traceability.
Digital renovation delivers tangible cost reduction and efficiency improvement for mixing plants. Intelligent systems automatically calculate raw material consumption, energy usage and production load, accurately measuring unit concrete costs and cutting waste of sand, gravel and cement. Big data analysis optimizes vehicle scheduling to reduce empty running rates of tankers, and automated statistical report generation drastically reduces manual paperwork workload for administrative staff. Leading ready-mixed concrete enterprises have built integrated energy-carbon management platforms to track electricity, water and carbon emission data, complying with the "Six-Zero Factory" cultivation standards for digital transformation in building materials, laying solid foundations for subsequent applications for intelligent factory and green benchmark enterprise certifications.
Industry technical analysts noted that although this mandatory smart site standard targets construction mixing plants, it establishes a unified benchmark for digital construction of all mixing stations. Major infrastructure projects covering water conservancy, municipal engineering and rail transit are expected to adopt similar rules in the future. For mixing equipment manufacturers and ready-mixed concrete producers, intelligence and IoT connectivity are no longer competitive advantages but mandatory entry thresholds to access the infrastructure market. Only by accelerating digital equipment transformation and building complete data management systems can enterprises adapt to the high-quality construction demands of the infrastructure sector and safeguard the lifeline of engineering quality.
