When the Turpan Basin at the end of April is sunny and the temperature continues to rise, a road winding along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain is turning from a drawing into a reality. The S12 Gaochang to Toksun to Baluntai Highway has a total length of 210.885 kilometers, starting from Gaochang District in Turpan City and connecting to G30 Lianhuo Expressway, and ending at G0711 Wuwei Expressway. It is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in 2029. After the completion of this two-way four lane highway, it will completely connect the whole S12 highway, and build the second large passageway connecting east and west to Khorgos Port in Xinjiang, in addition to G30 Lianhuo Expressway, so as to improve the north-south connectivity of Tianshan Mountains.

Perseverance on High Temperature Construction Sites in the Gobi Desert

The geological conditions along the High Toba Highway are complex, requiring crossing various landforms such as Gobi, mountains, and river valleys. The construction site of the third section is located on the Gobi Desert in Toksun County. At the end of April, the sun was scorching hot, and the surface temperature of the steel bars could reach 70 degrees Celsius in summer. Faced with the problem of construction personnel turnover, the project team improved treatment, installed air conditioning, set up rest rooms, equipped with heatstroke prevention materials, and adjusted work hours. After a year of adjustment, the construction team was stabilized. The Alagou Grand Bridge is 1.6 kilometers long and is expected to complete the substructure construction in May and the full bridge deck installation in June.

Tunnel construction tackles soft geological conditions

The Alagou No.1, No.2, and No.3 tunnels are located on Alagou Mountain, adjacent to an ancient river channel. The outer side of the mountain is composed of soft sand mixed with gravel, as if covered with a layer of mud. Construction workers can only use excavators to dig deeper bit by bit, and the hard rock layer has been excavated so far that blasting can be carried out. The Kuixian Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the High Toba Highway, with a left tunnel length of 7853 meters and a right tunnel length of 7832 meters. After entering the fault zone, the construction faced difficulties such as rock fragmentation, collapse, and water influx. The rock mass was reinforced by drilling and grouting, and then the construction was carried out. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, highway infrastructure

Intensive intelligent beam yard efficiency improvement

The project team has built the largest intensive smart beam yard in Xinjiang's transportation sector, providing precast concrete products for the entire line. Place orders in advance for each section, and the base will produce and be responsible for transportation and installation according to the orders. The box girder bottom web plate hoop reinforcement three in one automatic production line only requires one operator, two grasping robots, and one welding robot. It can process 1000 steel bars in 8 hours, increasing efficiency by more than 50%. A single box girder can be processed in 10 days, saving half the time compared to traditional techniques, and increasing the efficiency of the entire process from production to installation by about 40%. All builders are striving towards the goal of completion by 2029.Editor/Gao Xue