Yinkun Expressway opens to traffic

Recently, the Taipeng section of the Yinchuan-Kunming Expressway was officially completed and opened to traffic, adding another north-south passage connecting Ningxia, Gansu and Shaanxi. So far, the 2,322-kilometer Yinkun Expressway has been fully opened to traffic, effectively promoting the development of my country’s western region.

The Yinkun Expressway starts in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, passes through Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, and ends in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The designed speed is 80 to 120 kilometers per hour. It is a major traffic artery that runs through my country’s core hinterland from north to south in the national highway network planning. Among them, the Taipeng section of the Yinkun Expressway has a total length of 237 kilometers, which is the “final work” of the full opening of the Yinkun Expressway.

The construction of the Taipeng section of the Yinkun Expressway is extremely difficult. The line passes through geologically complex areas such as collapsible loess. The surface is broken, gullies are crisscrossed, and the terrain is complex. Mountains, hills, and plains are staggered. It covers the Maqu Tunnel, the loess tunnel with the shallowest burial depth and the largest bias pressure in my country, the Youlian Honghe Bridge, the highway bridge with the highest pier, the largest span, the longest pile foundation, and the largest single investment scale in Ningxia, the Qiaojiafan No. 1 Bridge, the Qiaojiafan No. 2 Bridge, the Liujiazui Bridge, and the Youfangliang Bridge, four corrugated steel web continuous beam bridges, and the frame bridge of the Taizhongyin Railway underpass, and many other key and difficult control projects.

In response to the complex and changeable tunnel geology, China Railway Construction implemented the tunnel construction principle of “first detection, advance pipe, short advance, weak disturbance, strong support, early closure, and frequent measurement”, overcoming the unfavorable geological conditions of low strength and poor self-stability of collapsible loess tunnels. In view of the technical difficulty, high risk of control and many cross-operations in bridge construction, the innovative technology of locking and closure of the middle span and side span, temperature control technology of large-volume concrete, automatic sprinkler system for high pier health preservation, and active use of advanced technologies such as intelligent tensioning ensured the completion of the project on schedule, accumulating valuable experience for the construction of collapsible loess tunnels and super-large bridges in Northwest my country.

It is reported that the Taipeng section of Yinkun Expressway is a backbone channel project that runs through the southern mountainous areas of Ningxia. The completion and opening of the project has realized the interconnection with many expressways such as Fuzhou Yinchuan, Qingdao Lanzhou, Jingyuan Huating, etc., and has become a north-south channel connecting Ningxia, Gansu and Shaanxi. It is of great significance to improve the travel conditions of the people in the old revolutionary areas along the line, help rural revitalization, promote resource development along the line and coordinate regional economic and social development.