# Amazing Engineering: China's Ya'an - Xichang Trans Mountain Expressway



## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

*Amazing Engineering: China's Ya'an - Xichang Trans Mountain Expressway*



> The 244-kilometer-long Ya'an-to-Xichang trans mountain expressway in Sichuan Province of southwestern China has been opened up to traffic on Jan 18, 2012. It is the final piece of China's G5 Interstate highway, connecting Beijing and Kunming.
> 
> The $3 billion highway project was funded by the central government of China in 2007 as a state-run aid program. This project is expected to play a key role in lifting millions of Tibetan, Han, Yi and Muslim Hui people in western Sichuan, the poorest but resource-rich region of China, out of poverty. As the most difficult part of the G5 Interstate, Ya'an-Xichang expressway is regarded as engineering marvels. More than half (54%) of the highway is tunnels and bridges among mountains. Ganhaizi tunnel is a rarely-seen dual-spiral tunnel, with an elevation of 800m spanning only 12km distance. Labajin bridge and Aizhai bridge are among the highest bridges in the world


picture courtesy of photobucket.


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

*Ya'an - Xichang Highway (part of China G5 Interstate) animation demo*


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

Amazing Engineering: China's Ya'an - Xichang Trans Mountain Expressway
picture courtesy of photobucket.


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)




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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

Why wasn't the *[CHN] China | road infrastructure • 中国高速* thread good enough for this posts?


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)




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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

bogdymol said:


> Why wasn't the *[CHN] China | road infrastructure • 中国高速* thread good enough for this posts?


That's a special highway,it's a trans mountain highway,most section are tunnels and bridges,some of the tunnels and bridges are among the world longest and highest.it's really worth checking out.


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## Tommy Boy (Feb 3, 2009)

[QUOTEOriginally Posted by bogdymol View Post 
Why wasn't the [CHN] China | road infrastructure • 中国高速 thread good enough for this posts?




I Think because this stands out as a marvel engineering masterpiece when it comes to freeways. Just breathtalking to see this Pictures. Imagine then how it would actually be to drive this incredible road. They should do this from the Southern Rockies up to Canada I Think it would have been awsome.


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)




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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)




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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

xizhimen said:


> That's a special highway,it's a trans mountain highway,most section are tunnels and bridges,some of the tunnels and bridges are among the world longest and highest.it's really worth checking out.





Tommy Boy said:


> I Think because this stands out as a marvel engineering masterpiece when it comes to freeways. Just breathtalking to see this Pictures. Imagine then how it would actually be to drive this incredible road. They should do this from the Southern Rockies up to Canada I Think it would have been awsome.


There are a lot of interesting construction projects world wide. If every one would have it's own thread on H&A it would be a mess here. That's why we have one thread per country.

If you really want a thread just for this project maybe it would have been better to open it here: *Mainland China Forums 中国大陆论坛 > Infrastructure/基础设施*.


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)




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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

I think mega special projects deserve some special attention.otherwise they will be soon drowned out by tons of much less significant ones.


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## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

^^ I agree, I have never heard of that road and I don't have the time to read every post on SSC searching for notable projects...

Can you locate the Ganhaizi tunnel on a map? Spiral road tunnels are very rare (but also spiral roads in the open air are quite rare). Here one complete underground loop in Italy: https://maps.google.ch/maps?q=Val+F...,+Verbano-Cusio-Ossola,+Piemonte,+Italia&z=15


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## sponge_bob (Aug 11, 2013)

Really the Chinese mountain megaprojects are in a league of their own, globally, and deserve a rare exception to the one country rule.  

The Chinese are building a high speed railway in the north west complete with Worlds Highest High speed Rail tunnel at 3600m. It is running behind schedule not least as they cannot get enough Oxygen to the workers building the highest bits. 

Maybe we should put the Lanzhou - Urumqi rail project in this thread too as it is yet another engineering marvel. There is an expressway along it, already built to the Kazakhstan border more or less.




























and the Terminus station in the far north west of China in Urumqi.


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## xizhimen (Jan 16, 2009)

sponge_bob said:


> Really the Chinese mountain megaprojects are in a league of their own, globally, and deserve a rare exception to the one country rule.
> 
> The Chinese are building a high speed railway in the north west complete with Worlds Highest High speed Rail tunnel at 3600m. It is running behind schedule not least as they cannot get enough Oxygen to the workers building the highest bits.
> 
> ...


I have another thread about China's railway stations and HSR in another subforum.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1448318&highlight=


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## Fane40 (May 8, 2012)

Amazing highway through mountains !
But it was really necessary to destroy the environment with that road ?
Hope the maintenance will follow in the future.


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## keber (Nov 8, 2006)

Fane40 said:


> But it was really necessary to destroy the environment with that road ?


I don't see much destruction. Nature there (jungle) will take over unused parts pretty soon. It is obvious that landscaping around recent Chinese expressways is quite similar to those in western Europe.


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## sponge_bob (Aug 11, 2013)

In favour of an exception (only for the Chinese mountain country megaprojects) I would point out that the German Autobahn network has been under construction since the 1910s and is around 13000 km long. It has a thread in here just like umm Gibralter does, I am not here to bash Gibralter.... mind.  


Most of the network is boring enough but the exceptional projects are truly exceptional on a global scale and mainly located in the mountains of the interior. And so I am backing xizhimen for a separate thread for the really spectaculars where there is a big mountain involved.


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## alserrod (Dec 27, 2007)

Wow!!!!!!!


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