This is the most beautiful high-speed road in China
In China, roads are treated as an important tool for strengthening the statehood, so the problem is given great attention. The rate of construction reaches 30 thousand kilometers of multi-lane highways per year, and its technology (laying the base of the concrete slabs and covering it with asphalt) provides operation in 30-40 years.
The reduction of travel time for passengers or cargo by only 1% allows increasing the country's GDP growth by 0.25%. Is it much or little at a time when some stagnant economies of the world are now struggling for a share of interest? This makes them and many others hurriedly turn their attention to the need for the development of high-speed modes of transport and the development of appropriate quality high-speed road infrastructure.
Yasi Speed Highway in China is called "super-cool construction". The road line twists between high mountains and powerful ridges. On average, for each 1km, its average altitude there increases by 7.5 m above sea level. Therefore, this road is also called "high-speed stairs to the sky" and "highway over the clouds".
The 240 km long road, officially named Yassi, cost over $4 billion and took five years to build. It became a tourist attraction because it runs through the picturesque scenery of Sichuan Province.
This region is not only extremely mountainous, but also a zone of active earthquakes, so it was necessary to use innovative thinking from Sky Road designers. The engineers solved the problem by using tunnels and viaducts to cover half the length.
The chief engineer of Sky Road, Pan Lee, said: "Building modern roads is a very difficult task from a technological point of view, because we have to keep up with the development of the automobile industry, and there are many factors in the design of pavements and layouts.
"From today's luxury cars, passenger expectations are high, so roads must be designed to match the smoothness and comfort of luxury cars. To achieve this, we have used a huge number of innovative technologies, materials and features, including the world's longest continuous descent of 51 km with a 3% slope and the world's first double helix tunnel.
One of the biggest problems in the construction of Sky Road was its location in the geologically unstable region, which is prone to earthquakes. This not only affected the construction, but also meant that the structure had to be strong enough to withstand such potential natural disasters. "Often there were a lot of landslides, which made construction very difficult", - added Lee, "And from the point of view of design it takes a lot of innovations to create a high-speed highway, which will work steadily in an earthquake-prone region".
Sky Road halved the travel time between Chengdu and Liangshan and opened up a region of China known for its tea production as well as ceramics, flowers, silk, spicy cuisine and wild pandas.
The Yasi Highway is one of the most magnificent and extraordinary projects in the world, with 270 viaducts and 25 tunnels. The total length of the tunnels along the road is about 41 kilometers.
Double-spiral tunnels of Ganhaizi and Tiejaizi are the first tunnels of this type in the world with small radii. The Nibashan Tunnel is one of the largest deepest tunnels in China, with a depth of 1650 meters, a length of 9,962 meters on the left line and 10,007 meters on the right line. This tunnel shortened the path, which lasted several hours around the mountains and through the valleys, to just 10 minutes.
The pearl of the new highway is Labajin Bridge with one of the highest bridge piers in the world with a height of 182.5 meters. Unlike other large supports in China, the highest supports on Labajin Bridge were built with four steel corner columns filled with concrete and joined by concrete slabs to form a hollow box structure. This unique type of pier has never been built before.
It is believed that the Yasi expressway is a mountainous area with the worst natural environment, the most complicated engineering and the highest technological content in the world. That is why it has a reputation of the "Heavenly Road".
The Chinese believe that quality roads are expensive, but lack of roads is more expensive. At the same time, the Chinese know how to count money. In the construction of modern high-speed highways are used time-tested experience and the best technological solutions taken from German freeways and American highways, which do not require repair for 35-40 years. And everywhere and in China they are able to study, adopt, copy and implement the world's advanced technologies, bringing in their Chinese specifics.
Wow, amaizing road