Since 2018, there has been a surge in the construction of smart expressways in all parts of China. More than ten provinces and cities such as Zhejiang and Shanghai have successively issued the guidelines to guide the construction of smart expressways. However, the current technical documents issued mainly focus on the intelligence of single expressway, while there is little analysis on the capabilities that smart provincial expressway network platforms should have. Therefore, based on the actual construction of the smart provincial expressway network platform, taking the expressway management business in Shanghai as an example, by comparing the capabilities of traditional electromechanical system and smart expressway, four aspects that should be improved by the provincial expressway network platforms are put forward. According to this, the overall architecture of the provincial expressway network platforms is proposed. By referring the smart expressway network platform built in Jiangsu Province, the construction mode, infrastructure construction scheme and core function construction are studied, which provide the useful reference for the subsequent construction of smart provincial expressway network platforms.