Since National Freeway No. 5 opened, travel between Taipei and Yilan has increased sharply, bringing heavy outside traffic into the county. Because Provincial Highways 7 and 7C pass through Yilan’s urban core, through-traffic mixes with local traffic, causing growing congestion around interchanges and in downtown areas, which affects residents’ quality of life.
To address this, the Yilan County Government is advancing the “Yilan B Connector – Yuanshan Extension Project,” based on the county’s Comprehensive Transportation Development Plan. The project will assess congestion along the Provincial Highway 7 system, strengthen east–west connections, clarify the road hierarchy, and separate through-traffic from local traffic to relieve the bottleneck where Provincial Highway 7 passes through the city.
The project, located in Yuanshan Township and Yilan City, runs from Jinshi Road to Section 1 of Yuanshan Road ( Provincial Highway 7), with a total length of about 3,751 meters and a planned width of 32 meters. About 151 meters in the urban section will be widened, while the rest will be newly built. The design follows fourth-class provincial highway standards, with a design speed of 60 km/h, six lanes in both directions, and green buffers separating vehicle lanes from pedestrian and bicycle paths.
Basic design was completed in 2023, but the review process for the “Provincial Highway Improvement Program” has been prolonged. As of December 17, 2024, central review and approval remain pending. To maintain progress, the county government has allocated its own funds to continue design work and plans to budget for additional preparatory tasks from 2026 to 2027.
Once completed, the project will provide a faster, more convenient route between Freeway No. 5 and the Yuanshan and Datong areas, reducing travel time and costs while improving tourism and logistics access. It will also divert through-traffic away from Yilan’s urban center, easing congestion and enhancing overall quality of life and transportation efficiency.