The Wushaoling Tunnel (simplified Chinese: 乌鞘岭特长隧道; traditional Chinese: 烏鞘嶺特長隧道; pinyin: Wūshāolǐng Tècháng Suìdào) is a 21.05 km dual-bore railway tunnel in Gansu, north-west China. The east-bound bore opened on 30 March 2006. The west-bound bore is expected to open in October 2006.[1] It is the longest railway tunnel in China.
The tunnel has reduced the distance between Dacaigou and Longgou by 30.4 km.[1] Key to the Asia-Europe Land Bridge, the tunnel is part of the 3,651 km section linking Lianyungang in East China with Ürümqi in Northwest China.[2]
The tunnel consists of two bores with centres separated by 40 m. It is designed to allow speeds of 160 km/h.[1] The tunnel travels through complex geology, involving four regional fault zones and soft rock. The New Austrian Tunnelling method was adopted as the construction technique. An elliptical cross-section (horseshoe shape) was used for the majority of the tunnel, with a circular section used in the geologically challenging Fault Zone No. 7.[3] The right (east-bound) bore was constructed first, while the left tunnel was a parallel drift with smaller diameter to be enlarged later. The gradient is mainly 1.1%. The Wuwei portal has an altitude of 2447 m, and the Lanzhou portal 2663 m. The maximum depth of the tunnel is 1100 m.[4]
On 26 June 2003 Interfax reported that the total investment for the project was ¥ 7 billion ($845 million), that the project commenced construction in November 2002 and that is was scheduled to take six and a half years to complete. Also reported was that Chinese steel manufacturer Lingyuan Iron and Steel (Linggang) would provide 4,360 tons of steel products for the tunnel project.[5]
References
- ^ a b c "Intelligence". Railway Gazette International. 2006-05-01. Retrieved 2006-06-04.
- ^ "China opens Asia's longest land tunnel railway". The Press Trust of India Limited. Asia Pulse Pty Limited. 31 March 2006.
- ^ Yang, J.S. (2006). "Interactions of four tunnels driven in squeezing fault zone of Wushaoling Tunnel". Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. 21 (3–4): 359. doi:10.1016/j.tust.2005.12.176.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Liu, Zhichun (2006). "Synthetical analysis on monitoring of Wushaoling railway tunnel". Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. 21 (3–4): 363–364. doi:10.1016/j.tust.2005.12.180.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Lingyuan Iron & Steel to Supply Steel Products for Asia's Longest Railway Tunnel". Interfax Companies & Commodities. 2003-06-26.