In April 2006, China won the right to build a highway in Algeria. You know, this large project with an investment of up to 40 billion yuan is not so popular in the bidding, and many countries are afraid to take over because the road is too difficult to repair.
So how hard is the Algerian highway to repair? Why is China able to win this big project?
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Algeria is the largest country in Africa, covering an area of 2.38 million square kilometers, covering a vast area, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the north, and rich in oil and gas resources.
But the Atlas Mountains, which stretch across northern Africa, act like a natural barrier that separates Algeria's southern hinterland from the northern coastal region.
People can only take the train or drive around, the traffic is very inconvenient, but also is not conducive to the leading role of the northern coastal ports, driving the transportation and export of oil and other mineral resources.
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In order to solve this dilemma, the government plans to build an Algerian highway, a project with a total length of 1216 kilometers, divided into three sections of central, eastern and western bids, and will be openly tendered worldwide.
The large investment of 7 billion US dollars attracted 64 large engineering groups, including Europe and the United States, to participate.
After an investigation of the local natural environment, many countries believe that the construction is too difficult, and the local government has many demands on this road, so the engineering teams of some countries have retreated.
In the end, the Chinese and Western bidding sections of the project were jointly won by the two groups of CITIC and China Railway, and the total project volume of more than 30 billion yuan was won.
How hard is this Algerian highway to repair? Why do engineering teams in some countries have to withdraw from the election despite the attractiveness of this "fat meat"?
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When surveying the local environmental and geomorphology, the engineering teams of various countries have already felt the trickiness of the project, and after the real contracting of this project, the Chinese engineering team has felt that the construction difficulty is far greater than imagined.
Here, summer temperatures reached 50 degrees, workers stirred up the asphalt mixture used to lay up to 160 degrees, and the construction conditions were difficult with high temperatures.
Coupled with the contract requirement that a gravel filler must be used, but Algeria on the Mediterranean coast did not have any gravel suitable for filling, we hit a wall at the beginning of the project.
In addition, the project includes 45 bridges, 180 culverts and tunnels across the Atlas Mountains, known as the "Museum of Geological Disasters".
65% of the terrain along the highway is marl geology, landslides can account for 23%, the geological environment is very complex, these harsh terrain not only lead to extremely poor stability of the formation, but also the rock is easily expanded in contact with water, which is easy to cause the rock avalanche event of the tunnel.
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However, the Chinese engineering team did not fear these problems, and in the process of construction, the mainland engineering team developed a high-modulus asphalt mixture admixture, plus cement.
The problem of gravel in the road cushion was successfully solved, and the quality of the project was guaranteed while saving cost and construction period.
In addition, we have introduced advanced technologies such as slope subgrade treatment and soft slope support in Europe, and used support equipment to stabilize the soil layer, successfully overcoming technical problems such as geological fragility and landslides.
According to Algerian workers, three Chinese workers only need one bed, because one person must be working while resting.
The pioneering spirit of opening up roads in every mountain and building bridges in water is the fundamental reason why we took this road.