Abstract: The disturbance effect of traffic engineering construction on vegetation in arid desert areas is a scientific issue worthy of attention. The Shule River Basin, located in the Hexi Corridor, was chosen as the research area, and the vegetation along the Jia'an Expressway was taken as the research object. Remote sensing interpretation, GIS spatial analysis, and other methods were used to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of vegetation and land coverage. The disturbance effect of highway construction on vegetation was identified, and the disturbance range of highway construction on vegetation was analyzed quantitatively. Moreover, the response characteristics of different land cover types to road construction disturbances are analyzed. The results show that:(1)From 2000 to 2019, the proportion of desert areas in the Shule River Basin showed a decreasing trend, and vegetation coverage showed an improving trend. (2)The area of "cropland," "grassland," "sparse vegetation," "wetlands," and "impervious surfaces" in the study area all increased, while the proportion of "bare areas" showed a downward trend, decreasing from 83.97% in 2000 to 77.55% in 2019. (3)The construction of the expressway significantly changed the vegetation landscape pattern along the line, leading to a significant increase in the differentiation level of vegetation coverage. The difference between the maximum and minimum vegetation coverage increased from 0.013(before highway construction) to 0.033. (4)During the construction of the Jia'an Expressway, the disturbance range to the vegetation was within 60 m, causing the vegetation on both sides to show a"zonal" feature, and the intensity of the disturbance decreased with the increase of the"distance from the highway,"which conformed to the relationship of the logarithmic equation. (5)Under the disturbance of expressway construction, the vegetation degradation intensity of different land cover types is different, and the degradation intensity of "impervious surfaces," "cropland," "grassland," "wetland," "sparse vegetation," and "bare areas" gradually weakened, and the I＿road were -0.216,-0.127,-0.112,-0.112,-0.095, and -0.007,respectively. The research results of this paper help to better understand the disturbance effect of road engineering on vegetation and can provide a quantitative reference for models related to road planning and evaluation.