The Chinese authorities announced the official opening of traffic through the Tianshan Shengli tunnel, located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. According to the Xinhua news agency, the new facility makes it possible to overcome a difficult mountain section not in a few hours, but in just about 20 minutes.
The Chinese side claims that this is the longest expressway tunnel in the world. It has become a key element of the new G0711 Urumqi—Yulee highway, which connects the northern and southern regions of Xinjiang and has a total length of more than 324 kilometers.
The construction of the highway and tunnel lasted five years, and the total investment amounted to 46.7 billion yuan. The maximum depth of the tunnel reaches 1.1 km, while it passes through 16 fault zones in an area with high seismic activity and harsh climatic conditions.
