Longest desert road fully open
Print Edition
The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic yesterday after the last section of the route in northwest China鈥檚 Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was put into operation.
The expressway linking Beijing and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, has a length of 2,800 kilometers, with over 500km passing through desert and no man鈥檚 land. The expressway passes through four other provincial-level regions: Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Gansu in north China.
It cuts the driving distance between Urumqi and Beijing by more than 1,300km, making it the fastest road to cross north China, according to Cao Shouhua, a researcher with the Research Institute of Highway. It is also the fastest land route from Tianjin Port in north China to Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands, facilitating exchanges along the Belt and Road.
Sections of the expressway in other regions are already in operation. Due to its harsh natural environment and complex geological conditions, the section in Xinjiang was the last to be completed, taking close to four years.
The Xinjiang section passes through the Gobi desert and grasslands. 鈥淚t was no easy work,鈥 said Long Xing, general manager of the Xinjiang section鈥檚 major developer.
In addition to extreme temperatures ranging from over 40 degrees Celsius to below minus 40 degrees, workers had to deal with sandstorms, snowstorms, and a lack of stable telecommunication signals, among other difficulties, Long added.
A total of 62 animal passages have been built throughout the section, according to Wang Xiaozhi, the section鈥檚 chief designer. The design of a three-layer passage has been specifically developed to simultaneously enable the uninterrupted passage of trains, animals and road vehicles.
The three-layer passages have cost an additional 120 million yuan (US$19 million). 鈥淲e should not impede wildlife鈥檚 path while building our own,鈥 Wang said.
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