Wushaoling_Tunnel

Wushaoling Tunnel

Wushaoling Tunnel

Railway tunnel in Gansu, China

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[clarification needed] bore opened on 30 March 2006.[1] The second bore opened in August 2006.[2] It was briefly the longest railway tunnel in China[3] until the opening of the 27.84 km Taihang Tunnel in late 2007. In 2018, a one year reconstruction of the signaling system was started.[2]

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In 2019, construction of a parallel tunnel started, to carry the Lanzhou-Zhangye high speed railway.[4]

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,[3] the tunnel is part of the 3,651 km section linking Lianyungang on the East China Sea coast with Ürümqi in Northwest China.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

Incident

On 26 July 2009, a locomotive taking a train on the way from Xi'an to Ürümqi caught fire in the left tunnel, about 300 meters from a tunnel portal. Over 1,700 passengers were evacuated, with injuries limited to some smoke inhalation.[9]

Coordinates

References

  1. [1]
    "Intelligence". Railway Gazette International. 1 May 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2006.
  2. [2]
    "乌鞘岭特长隧道信号系统更新改造助力兰新铁路更畅通_滚动新闻_中国政府网". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  3. [3]
    "The Longest Railway Tunnel in China--Wushaoling Extra-Long Tunnel". 26 December 2006.
  4. [4]
    "新乌鞘岭隧道开工，系兰州至张掖三四线铁路全线控制性工程_中国政库_澎湃新闻-The Paper". www.thepaper.cn. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  5. [5]
    "China opens Asia's longest land tunnel railway". The Press Trust of India Limited. Asia Pulse Pty Limited. 31 March 2006.
  6. [6]
    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. Bibcode:2006TUSTI..21..359Y. doi:10.1016/j.tust.2005.12.176.
  7. [7]
    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. Bibcode:2006TUSTI..21..363L. doi:10.1016/j.tust.2005.12.180.
  8. [8]
    "Lingyuan Iron & Steel to Supply Steel Products for Asia's Longest Railway Tunnel". Interfax Companies & Commodities. 26 June 2003.
  9. [9]
    "The Lanxin Line train caught fire in the Wuling Tunnel and 1700 passengers were safely evacuated". 27 July 2009.
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