http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-07/12/content_16765776.htm
By Cui Jia, July 12, 2013
Workers on new 1,776-km rail link no strangers to tough conditions, reports Cui Jia in Urumqi.
It was just after midnight in Hami prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region and the construction workers on the Lanzhou-Urumqi
high-speed railway had just started work.
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Work
proceeds on the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway, the longest such
rail link under construction in the world. Yao Tong / for China Daily
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The men work at night to avoid the intense heat of the day that
causes the water in the concrete mix to evaporate too quickly and could
compromise the strength of the bridge being built, making it too fragile
to meet stringent safety and engineering standards.
The stifling summer heat is just one of the challenges facing the 30,000 workers on the Xinjiang section of the project.
The 1,776-km-long railway, which on completion will link the capitals
of Gansu province and Xinjiang, crosses the desolate and inhospitable
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the arid sands of the Gobi Desert and a number of
high-wind areas. These features make construction of the rail link a
difficult and risky task.
The project, dubbed the "high-speed Silk Road", is the longest
high-speed railway under construction in the world and the first in
China to be built partly across a plateau.
After five years' work in Gansu, Xinjiang and Qinghai province, the
line is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2014. The team in
Xinjiang expects to finish laying the tracks by November.
Currently, only one railway carries passengers and cargo in and out
of Xinjiang, the old Lanzhou-Urumqi railway, which connects Xinjiang
with the rest of China and also provides a link to Central Asia and
Europe.
The new line follows hot on the heels of the 11,179-km
Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway, which officially came
into service in 2012. The C-X-E starts in Chongqing, crosses the Alataw
Pass, on the border with Kazakhstan, via the old Lanzhou-Urumqi railway,
and then progresses through Russia, Belarus and Poland before
terminating at Duisburg, Germany. The journey takes an average of 16
days, roughly three weeks faster than the ocean route from China's
eastern provinces.
Journey times slashed
More than 95 percent of Xinjiang's freight traffic is carried on the
old Lanzhou-Urumqi railway. Meanwhile, the high cost of air travel means
the railway is also the primary mode of travel for 90 percent of
passengers traveling in and around the autonomous region. However, the
strain imposed on the local travel network means logistics costs are
high, a factor that has limited the pace of the region's development,
according to the Urumqi Railway Bureau, which is overseeing the
construction and management of the new high-speed railway.
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Construction
teams work at night to avoid the intense daytime heat that causes the
water in the concrete mix to evaporate too rapidly.
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With a designed speed of 250 km per hour, the Lanzhou-Urumqi
high-speed railway will provide a faster and more convenient route
between the provincial and regional capitals. When the railway is
finished, the journey time between the cities will be cut by half - from
around 20 hours to less than 10. The high-speed railway will carry all
passenger traffic, while the old Lanzhou-Urumqi railway will be used for
freight only.
The bureau said construction of a railway to connect Hami prefecture
with the Inner Mongolia autonomous region may begin by the end of the
year, forging another link between Xinjiang and China's inland regions.
Meanwhile, a railway linking southern Xinjiang's Hotan and Xigaze in the
Tibet autonomous region is also under consideration.
Wind zones
In Xinjiang, strong winds are a major threat to the safety of the
high-speed railway, according to Ma Xizhang of the project management
department of Xinjiang Lanzhou-Urumqi Railway Co, which is responsible
for construction of a 710-km stretch of railway in Xinjiang.
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China's
first windproof railway tunnel, in the Shisanjianfang district of Hami,
where the winds are fierce and gales occur on more than 250 days of the
year.
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The high-speed railway will pass through three of the region's
most-feared areas, where winds traveling at speeds of up to 166 km per
hour regularly disrupt operations on the old Lanzhou-Urumqi railway and
have even been known to overturn trains.
"The nature of the high-speed railway means the threat posed by the
wind is much higher than for a conventional railway, so windproofing
projects are crucial to its success," said Ma.
Earlier this week, China's first windproof railway tunnel was
completed in the Shisanjianfang district of Hami, where the winds are
strongest and gales occur on more than 250 days of the year.
Without citing a specific figure, Ma said the construction costs were
high but the 1-km-long tunnel is essential. "When the company's
inspection team arrived in the area in 2010, the windows in their cars
were smashed by stones carried on the sudden, strong winds. If that
happened to a high-speed train, it would be a disaster."
More than 65 percent of the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway in
Xinjiang will cross these wind zones. In addition to the tunnels,
windbreaks are also being erected to further ensure the safety of the
trains. The scale of windproofing is the largest of all the high-speed
railways currently under construction in China.
Ancient artifacts
When the railway passes through Turpan prefecture it faces another
challenge; a series of subterranean wells and irrigation channels called
keraz, which date back to the Han Dynasties (206 BC-AD 220). There are
thought to be around 1,600 keraz in the area around Turpan. They were
built to prevent water evaporation in one of China's hottest areas and
many are still in use.
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Workers
unload parts for the ballastless track in Hami, part of the
Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway route. The project is scheduled for
completion in 2014. Photos by Yao Tong / for China Daily
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Although the high-speed railway will only cross 14 keraz on its
journey, all were reinforced before construction work began and bridges
have been built to carry the engines and rolling stock over the ancient
artifacts.
New hubs, purpose-built for high-speed trains, are also under
construction. In addition to those in Urumqi and Hami city, stations are
also being built in Turpan's Shanshan county and in Turpan city. Unlike
the hubs on the old railway, the new stations will be located close to
population centers to ensure ease of access. By 2020, Xinjiang will have
four rail gateways to inland China, plus four circular lines to connect
all the major cities in the region.
New links
Local people are also enthusiastic about plans to build a railway to
connect Kashgar in Xinjiang with the Pakistani port of Gwadar.
In June, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan would
like to build new road and rail links to Kashgar and establish a
Sino-Pakistani economic corridor. In February, China Overseas Port
Holding Co took over the management of Gwadar, a deep-water port on the
shores of the Arabian Sea and situated close to the Strait of Hormuz and
the Iranian border.
If an overland link were to be established, Gwadar Port would become
the starting point for deliveries of oil and natural gas to Xinjiang.
"We've already been asked to carry out research into the location of a
station at Kashgar for the China-Pakistan railway, but a detailed plan
and timetable have yet to be drafted," said Wang Yongzhi, deputy
commissioner of Kashgar prefecture, in June.
Wang said China's long experience of construction work on plateaus
could prove invaluable if the decision is made to build a railway across
the Pamir Plateau.
Yuan Jianmin, director of Xinjiang logistic association, said most
freight from Pakistan is transported to China via the sea route, a
journey of more than a month, whereas a railway link would allow goods
to be transported from Pakistan to cities around China in roughly 10
days.
The poor condition of the roads between Kashgar and Pakistan means
the network is ineffective, constraining exports to Pakistan via the
land port at Kashgar to just 100,000 metric tons each year, according to
Wang. "A railway link between China and Pakistan railway would
transform Kashgar and allow it to truly become an economic hub," he
said.