Tunnel on top of the world ready for traffic
Print Edition
WORK on the world’s highest road tunnel, on the Sichuan-Tibet highway, was completed yesterday.
It passes through Chola Mountain’s main peak, which is 6,168 meters above sea level, shortening the time from Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, to Nagqu in Tibet by two hours, and bypasses a dangerous section of the highway.
The tunnel, with two lanes in each direction, has been under construction since 2012 and will open to traffic next year.
The current 40-kilometer mountain highway in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze takes over two hours to traverse, with dangers from avalanches and rockfalls, not to mention extreme cold and low oxygen levels.
Built at a cost of 1.15 billion yuan (US$170 million), the 7-kilometer tunnel takes just 10 minutes to go through.
The highway will be able to accommodate 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles a day, compared to around 1,500 before.
“It has been the most difficult tunnel China Railway ever built,” said Yao Zhijun, the project’s chief engineer.
Built in 1951, Sichuan-Tibet Highway was China’s first in Tibet. There are now two other major highways — Qinghai-Tibet and Xinjiang-Tibet.
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