A recent aerial drone photo has shown progress on the implementation of the world’s longest expressway tunnel. The expressway tunnel is expected to link Urunqi and Yuli County in northwest China’s Xinjiang. The 22.13-kilometer Tianshan Shengli tunnel is expected to be the world’s longest expressway tunnel once completed. The project achieved a magnanimous feat on Monday as they completed tunnelling. This has opened a new shortcut linking southern and northern parts of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Furthermore, the tunnel will reduce the time it takes to drive across the middle section of the Tianshan Mountains. Expected to reduce time to just three hours, it will reduce the current seven hours it currently takes. The design features a dual-direction, four-lane tunnel with a design speed of 100 kilometres per hour.
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The Scope of Implementation on the World’s Longest Expressway Tunnel
Updates from the China Media Group on the world’s longest expressway tunnel indicate that it will be located in the remote depths of the Tianshan Mountains. Furthermore, it is expected to be at an altitude of over 3,000 meters. Over the past four years, more than 3000 workers have continuously worked to ensure that the project achieves its current status. They have worked in high-altitude, low-oxygen environments while also dealing with many geological challenges. These include rock bursts, large deformations in soft rock, and collapses.
Going forward, the project still faces severe environmental conditions and highly complex geology. Typically, it would take about 72 months to complete the tunnel while using the conventional means. However, the builders have cleared this phase successfully in just 52 months. Xinhua noted that the world’s longest expressway tunnel is expected to be completed and open to traffic in 2025. It is a key project of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, running from the capital of Urumqi in Northern Xianjing to Yuli County in southern Xinjiang.
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