Construction workers from China Railway No 2 Bureau celebrate the completion of Mila Mountain Tunnel, in Tibet autonomous region, China on July 31, 2018. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
LHASA — The world's highest highway tunnel was open to
traffic on Friday at an altitude of over 4,750 meters above sea level in
southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The two-way tunnel is over 5.7 km long, which is a part of the 400-km highway linking the regional capital of Lhasa with Nyingchi in the southeast of Tibet
The two-way tunnel is over
5.7 km long, which is a part of the 400-km highway linking the regional capital
of Lhasa with Nyingchi in the southeast of Tibet.
Construction of the
tunnel started in 2015 on the 5,018-meter-high Mila Mountain, and it was
completed on Monday, helping shorten the 18-km distance over the mountain to 5.7
km.
READ MORE: Tibet seeks balance of ecology, economy
Gong Bin, project manager of Mila Mountain Tunnel of the China
Railway No 2 Bureau, said that more than 10 technological breakthroughs have
been made in the course of the construction, such as improving the survey
accuracy of mountain tunnels in extremely cold weather and at high altitudes.
He said in addition to coldness and lack of oxygen, over 2,000
construction workers faced the challenges of the inconvenience of transporting
living and construction materials to the site.
ALSO READ: Tibet ready to welcome mountaineers' spring rush
"We have worked here for
more than four years and lived in makeshift houses at the entrance to the
tunnel," said Xu Yong, Party chief of the construction project.
He said
the highway is an important channel to the eastern part of Tibet, which can help
boost tourism, industrial development and bring traffic convenience to local
people.
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