World’s Longest Expressway Tunnel: China is about to open a huge new tunnel in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in northwest China. The Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, described as the world’s longest expressway tunnel, is set to welcome traffic by the end of this year. This tunnel will bring a major shortcut between the north and south of Xinjiang. The government shared this update at a press event led by the regional transport department.
The tunnel runs through the snowy Tianshan Mountains, which have long made travel slow and hard between the two halves of the region. At 22.13 kilometers long, it will cut the travel time through the middle section of the mountains from several hours down to only about 20 minutes once it opens.
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Change for Travel in Xinjiang
The tunnel lies on the new Urumqi–Yuli Expressway, a road built to connect the regional capital of Urumqi in the north to Korla and Yuli in the south. Before this tunnel was built, drivers had to take winding mountain roads that often took about seven hours to go from Urumqi to Korla. After the tunnel opens, this same journey is expected to take just about three hours.
At a press conference, Guo Sheng, deputy director of Xinjiang’s transport department, said the expressway and tunnel will help reduce a long-term problem that slowed development between the north and south of Xinjiang.
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How the Tunnel Was Built?
Work on the tunnel began in April 2020 and took nearly five years to complete and in the mean time the workers faced many problems during construction. The area had freezing temperatures, very high mountains above 3,000 meters, and strong rock layers deep underground. The tunnel also passed through 16 fault zones, which made the work dangerous and slow.
Engineers used innovative methods and specially designed machines called tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to dig through hard rock faster and safer than traditional drilling.
The new tunnel not only makes travel faster, it also supports China’s plans to improve trade and transportation in the region. Xinjiang is an important part of economic connections between China and countries across Eurasia, as part of the wider Belt and Road Initiative.
