Wushaoling Tunnel

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 was briefly the longest railway tunnel in China^[2] until the opening of the 27.84 km Taihang Tunnel in late 2007.

Location

Located on the Lanzhou-Wuwei section of the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway, the tunnel has reduced the distance between Dachaigou and Longgou by 30.4 km.^[1] Key to the "Eurasian Land Bridge",^[2] the tunnel is part of the 3,651 km section linking Lianyungang on the East China Sea coast with Ürümqi in Northwest China.^[3]

Administratively, the tunnel is located within two county-level units of Wuwei Prefecture-level City. The eastern (actually, southeastern) portal is in Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County (a.k.a. Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County); the western (actually, northwestern) portal, in Gulang County.

Infrastructure

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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 it 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.^[6]

Coordinates

• Lanzhou portal (east): 37°07′25″N 102°57′47″E / 37.1236°N 102.9630°E / 37.1236; 102.9630, north of Dachaigou Town in Bairi Tibetan Autonomous County
• Wuwei portal (west): 37°17′49″N 102°53′59″E / 37.2970°N 102.8998°E / 37.2970; 102.8998, south of Heisongyi Town in Gulang County

References

1. 1 2 3 "Intelligence". Railway Gazette International. 1 May 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2006. 
2. 1 2 "The Longest Railway Tunnel in China--Wushaoling Extra-Long Tunnel". 26 December 2006. 
3. ↑ "China opens Asia's longest land tunnel railway". The Press Trust of India Limited. Asia Pulse Pty Limited. 31 March 2006. 
4. ↑ Yang, J.S.; et al. (May–July 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. 
5. ↑ Liu, Zhichun; et al. (May–July 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. 
6. ↑ "Lingyuan Iron & Steel to Supply Steel Products for Asia's Longest Railway Tunnel". Interfax Companies & Commodities. 26 June 2003.