The 22.13-km Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the world's longest expressway tunnel, officially opened to traffic on Friday.
Traversing the central Tianshan Mountains in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the tunnel slashes what was once a several-hour mountain drive to just 20 minutes.
As a vital artery linking city clusters in northern and southern Xinjiang, the G0711 Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, including the tunnel, entered operation on the same day.
Via existing expressways, the new route extends to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region, thereby becoming a key hub that connects China's eastern economic circle with countries in Eurasia.
"This is an all-weather, high-efficiency, large-capacity transport corridor that will significantly enhance the resilience and security of national energy resources and agricultural supply chains," said Huang Tao, deputy director of the transportation bureau of the Bayingolin Mongolian autonomous prefecture, where Yuli county is located.
Stretching 2,500 kilometers, the Tianshan Mountains span central Xinjiang, separating Urumqi, the largest city in the north, from Korla, the largest city in the south. With the opening of the expressway, travel time between these two major cities is reduced from 7 hours to approximately 3 hours, promoting economic integration between northern and southern Xinjiang and creating new channels for external exchanges.
"Previously, transporting raw materials from northern Xinjiang to Yuli took three to four days; now it can be done in one to two days," said Tao Feng, manager of Yuli Lihua Textile Co., Ltd., noting that the company's transport costs and time will be significantly reduced.
The expressway, constructed over five years, spans 324.7 kilometers with a total investment of 46.7 billion yuan (about $6.63 billion).
"Building roads in the Tianshan Mountains presented extreme challenges at every step," said Zhou Zheng, general manager of the project of China Communications Construction Company. The complex terrain along the route includes an 11-km section with 14 bridges and five tunnels, resulting in a bridge-tunnel ratio exceeding 90 percent.
The tunnel's construction saw world-class challenges due to its extraordinary scale. It spans 22.13 kilometers, reaches a maximum burial depth of 1,112.2 meters, crosses 16 geological fault zones and faces five major difficulties -- high ground stress, high seismic intensity, stringent environmental requirements, extreme cold and high altitude.
To address these challenges, Chinese builders implemented innovative solutions: constructing eco-friendly access roads to minimize ecological disruption and improve material transport efficiency; adopting a construction method that shortened the main tunnel's construction period by over a quarter; and deploying China's independently developed global-first pressurized hard rock tunnel boring machine to overcome industry inefficiencies in hard rock excavation.
The expressway traverses diverse landscapes, allowing tourists to experience the Tianshan Mountains' glaciers, pastoral grasslands, forested valleys, Gobi desert and wetlands while witnessing the project's commitment to ecological conservation.
"Day trips between northern and southern Xinjiang may become routine, attracting more tourists," said Han Jun, a long-distance bus driver who frequently travels between the regions.
"Xinjiang's expressway length has exceeded 8,000 kilometers, while the total length of expressways and first-class highways has surpassed 13,000 kilometers," said Guo Sheng, deputy director of the regional transport department.
He emphasized that as more expressways and first-class highways traverse the Tianshan Mountains, they will accelerate the two-way flow of commercial logistics and cultural tourism resources between northern and southern Xinjiang, injecting strong momentum into the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.