Metro Line 1 is expected to open one year from now--National Day 2010, Sichuan News announced today.

The trains themselves were delivered in August and are currently undergoing testing.

Construction on Line 2 is also well underway.

The construction has left many of the city's roads just barely accessible to vehicles. Lanes have been closed and left turns banned at many intersections.

Renmin Nan Lu in particular, one of the city's main thoroughfares, has been hardly hospitable to commuters--especially those on foot or bike--the last couple of months.

Construction was ongoing during the hoiday period with thousands of workers employed to maintain the frantic pace of the roadwork while keeping the roads open to traffic--which often requires laying down asphalt only to tear it up again several days later.

Much-needed pavement was laid down on Renmin Nan Lu between the Jinjiang River and the Second Ring Road. For weeks it has been a stretch of potholes, cracks, bumps, sudden drops, and sections lacking any paving whatsoever.

Project foreman Ju Xie said that construction on Renmin Nan Lu should be mostly completed by the end of the month with some minor work still to be done after that--"but it won't take too long." The blue construction barriers will be taken down mid-month, he said.

And in other news, if you thought the streets seemed emptier than usual during the holiday, you weren't just imagining things: Yesterday alone, an alleged 68,000 people departed from the city via the bus stations, reported Sina. That figure doesn't include those who went on holiday via other means of transportation, including by planes and personal vehicles.

The most popular destinations were Xichang, Dazhou, Panzhihua, Yibin, and Chongqing.