Chongqing, the largest city in southwest China, is burrowing
forward with what is believed to be the country's largest urban
tunnel project.
On completion, the Daping urban tunnel project will boast two
1,435-meter-long tunnels connecting to a 4.35-km bridge that spans
the Jialing, a tributary of the Yangtze River.
It will be the widest tunnel in Asia.
Tunnelers struck through on the left part of the tunnel on
Saturday after more than a year of effort. The right tunnel, just
30 meters from completion, is expected to be finished on Christmas
Day, according to Fan Jianguo, deputy secretary of the Party
Committee of the No.1 Company with China Railways No.8 Bureau, the
builder.
As for the bridge, construction workers have so far completed
four fifths of the work, and will now spend more time on tasks such
as road surface improvement, illumination and erection of road
signs and fire control devices, according to Fan.
The Daping urban project starts from a mountain side near the
Daping water tower, traverses Daping Mountain, connects to the
Jiahua Bridge and ends at Xindongfu Garden in Huangshaxi. The dual
tunnels are sandwiched in between existing tunnel tracks for urban
light track rail and a separate railway tunnel connecting Chongqing
and Xiangfan, a city in western Hubei Province.
The three-lane tunnels will restrict cars to speeds of 80 km per
hour. They will connect Jiangbei District with downtown Yuzhong and
Yangjiaping districts, cutting travel time by half an hour.
The 2.2 billion yuan (about US$ 275 million) tunnel project will
go into service next June.
Chongqing, whose urban districts are divided into three major
parts by the mighty Yangtze and its tributary Jialing, is
well-known for its mountainous terrain. Travel around the
mountainous city used to be very difficult but improved transport
infrastructure has made commuting much easier.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)