"Open the road in the mountains and build bridges when encountering water"This ancient precept is like the Tianshan Mountains across the whole territory of Xinjiang, which is 1,700 kilometers long, separating Xinjiang from south to north, forming different natural and cultural landscapes in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. The Tianshan Mountains, one of the seven major mountain systems in the world, are majestic and magnificent, and because of their existence, the north and south of Xinjiang have formed a huge gap in terms of economy and culture. The construction of the Duku Highway was once a dream to connect the north and the south, and became the only passage through the Tianshan Mountains, leaving unforgettable memories for countless people.
In the 70s of the last century, the state issued an order on the construction of the Tianshan Highway, aiming to create a traffic artery connecting the north and the south. The construction of the Tien Shan Highway faced enormous challenges, especially the rugged stretch from Duzi Mountain to Kuqa, spanning cliffs and snow-covered areas. With a limited level of science and technology, engineers and builders insisted on overcoming various difficulties in the face of bad weather and complex environments, leaving footprints of struggle.
The terrain of Duku Highway is special, with sharp turns and steep slopes, which is a very challenging project. Anyone who successfully crosses the Tien Shan Highway is lucky, as one-third of the road is made up of cliffs and is surrounded by more than a dozen rivers. If you're not careful, you can fall off a cliff on the side of the road. However, the Duku Highway is also an "Internet celebrity check-in highway", and the beautiful scenery such as Nalati and Bayinbrook grassland along the way is intoxicating.
Although the Duku Highway crosses the Tianshan Mountains, it is only open to traffic in April and May every year due to extreme weather. With a total length of 560 kilometers, the Duku Highway has a limited opening time, and each crossing requires more than seven hours of arduous travel. In order to be faster and safer, the best way to connect the southern and northern frontiers is to actually cross and create a tunnel across the belly of the Tien Shan Mountains.
With the construction of the Wuwei Expressway, the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel has become its "throat" project, which is a key link connecting the north and the south. The total length of the Tianshan Victory Tunnel is 21At 97 km, it is by far the longest road tunnel in the world. Once opened to traffic, it only takes more than half an hour to cross the Tianshan Mountains, completely bidding farewell to the past "over the mountains and mountains".
However, the construction of the Tien Shan Shengli Tunnel was not all smooth sailing. This is a difficult "hard bone", with a maximum burial depth of 1,112 meters, and the construction is extremely difficult. It has the characteristics of high geostress, high intensity, high environmental protection requirements and high altitude cold, which makes the construction of Shengli Tunnel full of challenges. Environmental protection, especially soil protection, is also taken into account during the construction process. In order to protect the original natural ecology to the greatest extent, three openings and four "skylights", i.e., shafts, are set up at each end of the tunnel to solve the ventilation problem.
The construction team of the Tien Shan Shengli Tunnel faced many difficulties, such as trenches, frozen earth and rock, and unforeseen hard soil layers. In this process, the shield machine becomes an indispensable weapon. Specially designed for the Tianshan Tunnel Project, the "Tianshan" and "Shengli" shield machines are a pair of underground giants, 282 meters long, weighing 2,000 tons, and with an excavation diameter of 843 meters. Not only are they efficient, but they can also be switched to different situations depending on the geological conditions.
This "hard rock TBM" is the first time to be applied to such a difficult tunnel project, which not only improves the work efficiency, ensures the safety of construction, but also protects the underground environment to the greatest extent during the construction process and reduces the damage to the natural ecology. In Xinjiang, the protection of the underground environment is particularly important, because the construction of the Tianshan Highway in the past has had a certain impact on the local ecological environment.
At the beginning of December 2022, the "Shengli" TBM has reached the midpoint of the service tunnel of the Tianshan Tunnel. As the "throat" project of Wuwei Expressway, the construction of Tianshan Shengli Tunnel has laid a solid foundation for the smooth operation of Wuwei Expressway. This also marks the successful opening of the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel Project, providing a more convenient and faster passage for the north-south connection.
The construction of the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel is not only a technical challenge, but also an important measure to connect the north and the south and promote regional economic and cultural development. It will become another magnificent chapter in Xinjiang's highway construction and add a lot of color to China's infrastructure construction. Looking back at the world-class projects that China has built in recent years, such as sea-crossing bridges, viaducts, and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, China has been hailed as an "infrastructure madman", and the construction of the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel once again demonstrates China's outstanding strength in the field of infrastructure.
In China's infrastructure industry, workers have always overcome many difficulties and created countless miracles. The successful opening of the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel will greatly promote the connection between Xinjiang and other regions, and promote economic and cultural prosperity. Just as "opening the road in the mountains and building bridges in the water", the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel has become a link between the north and the south, providing people with a new way to travel, narrowing the distance between the north and the south, and building a bridge connecting the territory.