Urumqi, December 26 (Xinhua) -- The world's longest highway tunnel, the Tianshan Victory Tunnel, and its G0711 Urumqi Yuli Expressway (referred to as the "Wuwei Expressway"), opened on December 26. What exactly is the origin of this road? Let's start with the name of Wuwei Expressway——

Hand in Hand at the Hub of the Ancient Silk Road

The Wuwei Expressway, connected by bridges and tunnels, crosses the Tianshan Mountains. Photo by Wang Fei, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Urumqi is an important node city in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt. It is located in the geographical center of the Eurasian continent and is a hub town on the ancient Silk Road.

"Wei" is Yuli County, a "desert pearl" located at the southern foot of Tianshan Mountains and the northeast edge of Tarim Basin. The Tarim River flows from here to the end of Lop Nur, and the Taklimakan Desert is close to it. Here, there is the magical plant Robe, known as the "green treasure", the world's largest original Populus euphratica forest reserve, as well as Silk Road cultural relics such as Yingpan Ancient Tomb, Xingdi Rock Paintings, Sun Tomb Site, and Peacock River Beacon Tower Group

Nowadays, the Wuwei Expressway is like outstretched arms, crossing the natural barrier of the Tianshan Mountains and connecting Urumqi and Yuli County, two important nodes on the ancient Silk Road.

After the Tianshan Victory Tunnel and the Wuwei Expressway, where it is located, are fully opened to traffic, the time cost of people and goods flow between Urumqi, Korla, Yuli County and other places will be greatly reduced. The travel time from Urumqi north of the Tianshan Mountains to Korla south of the Tianshan Mountains will be shortened from 7 hours to just over 3 hours.

The long tunnel is completed, but the journey is difficult

In late December, the reporter drove from Urumqi to Wuwei Expressway for an interview. The cold wind swept over the ridges of the Tianshan Mountains, covering the steep mountains with white snow. Among the layers of mountains, a great road stretched forward, opening up tunnels inside the Tianshan Mountains and building bridges between the towering peaks.

Entrance end of Tianshan Victory Tunnel on Wuwei Expressway. Photo by Wang Fei, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

How difficult is it to cross the Tianshan Mountains? Mao Jinbo, the chief engineer of the Wuwei Expressway Section 6 project of China Communications Construction Corporation, who is responsible for the construction task, introduced that tunnel construction has overcome difficulties such as "long", "many", "deep" and "high". The Tianshan Shengli Tunnel is approximately 22.13 kilometers long and crosses multiple geological fault zones. The maximum burial depth of the tunnel exceeds 1112 meters, and the depth of the ventilation shaft is rare in China. At the same time, it also faces high altitude, high stress, high seismic intensity, and high environmental protection requirements.

Acceleration between the north and south of Tianshan Mountains

The Wuwei Expressway winds through the Tianshan Mountains. Photo by Wang Fei, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Guo Sheng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Transportation Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, introduced that after the opening of the Wuwei Expressway, the transportation bottleneck that restricts the coordinated development of the northern and southern Xinjiang regions has been accelerated, connecting the "Northern Xinjiang Urban Belt" and the "Southern Xinjiang Urban Agglomeration", accelerating the flow of commercial logistics and cultural tourism resources between the two regions, and injecting strong impetus into the high-quality development of Xinjiang.

At the same time, the Wuwei Expressway connects multiple major channels such as the G7 Jingxin Expressway, G30 Lianhuo Expressway, G3012 Tuhe Expressway, and G0612 Xihe Expressway. It also efficiently connects multiple economic corridors such as the New Eurasian Continental Bridge and China Central Asia West Asia, playing an important role in promoting the smooth circulation of domestic and international dual circulation.

The great road runs through the Tianshan Mountains, and the natural ditch becomes a thoroughfare. The world-class project of Wuwei Expressway will provide sustained acceleration for promoting high-quality economic development with the hard core strength of China's infrastructure.

Editor: Jiang Yani