Abstract:The key element guarantee is an innovative management means in the transportation industry of Shanghai. The practice shows that this management means is beneficial for the scheme stability of major transportation project and the reduction of implementation obstacles. Firstly, the background of key element guarantee for major transportation projects in Shanghai is introduced. And then the requirements of key element guarantee are analyzed from the aspects of policies, regulations and engineering implementation. Finally, on the basis of summarizing the difficulties in key element guarantee of traditional transportation construction engineering, and combined with the engineering practice, five development trends for key element guarantee are proposed.