On the vast Gobi Desert in the Hexi Corridor, high-speed rail construction is steadily accelerating, overcoming harsh construction challenges such as large temperature differences between day and night, frequent sandstorms, and easy cracking of concrete. With the successful completion of key nodes in the pouring of box girders, the construction progress of the Lanzhou Zhangjiakou Third and Fourth Railway continues to advance, laying a solid foundation for the smooth opening of the railway by the end of 2027.

Construction of tackling the Gobi Desert

The construction of the Wuwei Zhangye section of the Lanzhou Zhangjiakou Third and Fourth Railway has made significant progress, and the Jinchuan beam yard has successfully completed the pouring of the 200th hole box girder, with more than half of the prefabrication task completed. The beam yard plans to prefabricate 397 hole box girders in total, and 136 hole box girders have been erected so far. In response to the construction difficulties caused by the unique climate of the Gobi Desert, the project team uses stainless steel formwork combined with a fully enclosed intelligent curing chamber to intelligently regulate temperature and humidity, effectively avoiding concrete cracking problems and ensuring high standards of construction quality.

Clear overview of the entire line

This route is an important component of the national eight vertical and eight horizontal land bridge channels, as well as the core passenger transport channel of the Silk Road Economic Belt. The total length of the new main line is 244.05 kilometers, with a total estimated investment of 24.855 billion yuan. The design speed is 250 kilometers per hour, and the construction period is 3 years. It is expected to be opened to traffic by the end of 2027. There are six stations along the entire line, including two existing connecting stations and four newly built stations, with clear division of labor and complete functions. At present, the section from Zhongchuan Airport to Wuwei has been successfully opened, and the section from Wuwei to Zhangye is currently the core under construction section.

Empowering regional development

After the opening of the line, the travel time from Lanzhou to Zhangye will be reduced to about two hours, greatly facilitating the travel of people along the line. At the same time, it can divert the passenger pressure of Lanxin Railway, release a large amount of freight capacity, fully guarantee the transportation of coal and bulk commodities from Xinjiang, and stabilize the national energy supply chain. Keywords: Hexi Corridor, Road Network Upgrade

The line connects multiple key cities in Hexi, connects with the railway network in Xinjiang, and forms a dual channel pattern of the Northwest High speed Railway, which helps promote the circulation of cultural tourism and characteristic agricultural products along the line, and promotes the coordinated high-quality development of the Hexi Corridor urban agglomeration.Editor/Min Jing