Qinghai-Tibet Railway Engineers Select Permafrost Sites

The construction of the highest and longest plateau railway in the world from Qinghai to Tibet presents engineers with a range of complex and demanding problems. One of the most daunting is the need to lay track through permafrost terrain. To ensure the success of the whole project, engineers have selected five construction test sites to simulate the tough conditions they will face.

The Golmud-Lhasa section of the railway is under construction and part of the route runs between the Kunlun and Dangla mountains. The stretch covers 550 kilometers of permafrost terrain - almost half of the total length of the Golmud-Lhasa section. The complications presented by the terrain are making the engineers carefully consider their options before they put their drills into the ice.

As a result, five test sites have been selected in a range of permafrost areas to give the engineers' plans a dry run before putting them into practice. The researchers hope to add to their information on the conditions and complete the trials in 2003.

Since the first sod was turned on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on June 29th, 10,000 Chinese have been employed on the project and about 36 million US dollars pumped into its construction.

SEP 02, 2001
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