It’s the summer of highway traffic jam

The cause of the calamity, most say, is a combination of bad planning — a summer of endless construction projects that have narrowed traffic lanes — and China’s ever-growing appetite for coal, most of it now being hauled out of Inner Mongolia.

Coal accounts for 70 per cent of China’s energy supplies.

It may be dirty, but it remains cheap and plentiful here and continues to propel China’s juggernaut economy.

In the Gentleman from Hunan Restaurant, on State Road G110 — now arguably China’s main coal transportation artery — a half-dozen truckers from Inner Mongolia know all about it. Hauling coal is their livelihood, but it’s a livelihood that has become more challenging in recent years, they say.

The longer the delays, the more fuel they burn, the more meals they buy, the less coal they move.

“There’s just too many vehicles out there and not enough road,” says one veteran, reaching for a plate of deep-fried pork as his colleagues nod approval.

The others at the table — they range in age from 25 to 39 — all hail from the Baotou area of Inner Mongolia. Most have known each other since childhood. They’re all independent contractors, owning three durable transport trucks worth more than 1.4 million Chinese yuan (about $220,000). They want improvements.

It’s not as if China has neglected to build new expressways. The country has been on a highway-building boom, quintupling its network in the past decade.

But it has been slow to mesh the nation’s specific needs for Mongolian coal with a network of roads that can handle those needs.

Now, local drivers say, existing roads have taken such a beating that repair crews are everywhere at once — shutting down lanes and slowing traffic.

Wisely, the state is building two additional rail lines for coal and cargo to take pressure off the highway system. But they’re not expected to be in place for some time.

As the men speak, the afternoon air outside is filled with the sound of trucks moving gingerly in low gears.

The back up of trucks on this narrow, two-lane stretch extends to the horizon.

“There are just too many tolls in the system,” says the oldest in the crew who, at 39, has 16 years of experience behind the wheel. “It takes too much time getting through all of them.”

“And then there are the police,” another complains.

Truckers say traffic police take a vigorous approach in handing out fines for various infractions. But getting proper receipts for payment is often difficult, suggesting that the police might well be pocketing the proceeds of some of those tickets.

“If you want an official receipt, you have to pay 200 RMB (about $30),” one explains. “But if you don’t want an official receipt, you can pay 100 RMB or even 50 RMB.”

The truckers say they feel like slow-moving targets.