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Beijing, China | CHINA TODAY | China completed on Monday the construction of the world’s longest expressway tunnel through snow-covered mountains in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, marking a significant milestone in its infrastructure development.
Once operational, the 22.13-kilometer Tianshan Shengli Tunnel will reduce the travel time through the Tianshan Mountains — one of the longest mountain ranges in the world — from three hours to about 20 minutes.
It will significantly boost connectivity between northern and southern Xinjiang and help the region, which is a core area on the Silk Road Economic Belt, further open up to Eurasian countries, the regional government said.
As a crucial section of the 319.72-km Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which runs from the regional capital of Urumqi in northern Xinjiang to Yuli county in southern Xinjiang, the tunnel will reduce the driving time between the two locations from about seven hours to just over three hours. The expressway is expected to open to traffic in 2025.
The tunneling work started in April 2020. The construction team had to overcome many difficulties and continuously innovate to beat challenges such as an average construction elevation of over 3,000 meters and complicated geological conditions.
