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Xinlu Liang

The world’s longest expressway tunnel has opened to traffic in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, capping five years of construction on a project designed to increase China’s links with Central Asia.
The 22.13km (13.75-mile) Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the centrepiece of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, officially opened on Friday, creating a 20-minute drive through the Tianshan Mountains that divide northern and southern Xinjiang.
The tunnel halves the travel time between the regional capital Urumqi and the city of Korla from over seven hours to around 3½ hours, according to state media.
Song Hailiang, chairman of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), told state broadcaster CCTV that the tunnel “set two world records”.
“It is the longest expressway tunnel in the world and has the deepest vertical shaft for a highway tunnel,” Song said.
Work started on the expressway in April 2020 and engineers had to confront a range of challenges from the terrain and environment.


The tunnel cuts a path through the mountains at nearly 3,000 metres (9,842 feet) above sea level and crews working on the project faced extreme cold, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 42 degrees Celsius (minus 43.6 Fahrenheit).
The tunnel’s deepest point is 1,112 metres below the altitude at the entry and shafts had to be dug over 700 metres below the surface to take equipment and workers to and from the construction face.
Miao Baodong, chief engineer of CCCC’s Xinjiang Transport Investment and Development arm, told CCTV that the project would have taken at least a decade using traditional tunnelling methods.
However, the engineers employed a novel “three tunnels plus four shafts” strategy, using a tunnel boring machine designed for hard rock.
The result is a fast link that is expected to enable the flow of more resources throughout the autonomous region, including energy and manufactured goods in the north to agricultural products from the south, according to officials.


The expressway is also expected to strengthen links with Central and South Asia under the Belt and Road Initiative, serving as a “strategic bridgehead for opening up to the West”, according to the CCTV report.
Xinjiang borders eight countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, making it a hub for China’s regional and international trade.
Guo Sheng, deputy director of Xinjiang’s transport department, said the expressway connected the country to various economic corridors, underscoring Xinjiang’s “strategic role as a pivotal hub” for “dual circulation”.
Dual circulation is a national policy to strengthen domestic economic integration and foreign trade, in part through overland corridors.
However, Xinjiang has been a source of friction between China and the West over the years, with the United States and European Union imposing sanctions and export restrictions in response to allegations of human rights violations – charges Beijing has repeatedly denied.
China is also building a 1,980km railway connecting Hotan in Xinjiang to Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region, another ambitious, costly “project of a century”.
It also presents extreme engineering challenges and is expected to boost regional integration, transport and national security.


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The Tianshan Shengli Tunnel on the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is open to traffic. Photo: Xinhua

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A Fuxing bullet train runs along the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway on June 24, 2021, in Shannan, Tibet autonomous region. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images

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illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

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Farm workers in Xinjiang, where the regional government has acknowledged the impact of US sanctions for the first time. Photo: Getty Images


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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at the White House, April 9. Photo: TNS

Visitors watch a weaver in Tuancheng, a neighbourhood of Hotan City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Politics

The project is the biggest of its kind in the world and is expected to help forge stronger regional and international links


The project is the biggest of its kind in the world and is expected to help forge stronger regional and international links.


Infrastructure

Infrastructure in Asia

Central Asia

China Communications Construction

China’s mega expressway tunnel opens in Xinjiang, halves north-south travel time

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The project is the biggest of its kind in the world and is expected to help forge stronger regional and international links

The project is the biggest of its kind in the world and is expected to help forge stronger regional and international links