Sangzhuling tunnel, the first super long tunnel of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, was completed. The total length of the tunnel is 16.449 kilometers. Sangzhuling tunnel is one of the most important engineering projects of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, which is one of the five railways that connect Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region to the rest of China.
Located in the canyon area of Shannan city in Tibet, the tunnel took 1,125 days and more than 1,200 construction workers to build since work began in December 2014. During construction, workers had to overcome challenges of high temperatures and strong rock bursts, a spontaneous, violent fracture of rock that can occur in deep mines. According to project manager Zhu Xuren and team leader Li Chuanhai, the construction team took several safety measures, such as accelerating ventilation, setting up an automatic and high-pressure sprinkler system, and placing ice inside the tunnel.
The Sichuan-Tibet Railway is expected to be completed in 2025, and will reduce the travel time from Chengdu to Lhasa to about 13 hours from about 36 hours.
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