What's New! The last kilometer of the avalanche section of the Duku Highway is being rushed through and is expected to resume traffic in June.
On May 17, according to CCTV news live broadcast, after more than two months of snow clearing operations, the snow clearing of the northern section of the Duku Highway has come to an end, and at present, there is only the last kilometer of snow clearing on the whole line.
The snow clearing site of the Duku Highway Hashilegendaban. Screenshot of the video
According to staff forecasts, it will take another week to clear the snow, after which debris removal and maintenance of the sunken road will be carried out, and the final stages will be completed before the opening of traffic, which is expected to resume in June.
On the same day, at the last kilometer avalanche clearing site in Hashilegendaban, the highest elevation on the Duku Highway, workers not only cleared the snow, but also reinforced the snow on both sides of the road.
Wulan Mawuletihan, deputy director of the Dushanzi Branch of the Kuitun Highway Administration, gave a briefing. Screenshot of the video
Wulan Mawulethan, deputy director of the Dushanzi branch of the Kuitun Highway Administration, said that the height of natural snowfall may be less than two or three meters, but the thickness caused by avalanches may reach an average of more than 10 meters.
According to reports, there are three difficulties in the snow clearing operation of Duku Highway this year: first, there is a large amount of snowfall in the mountainous areas in winter, and the snow thickness of the road exceeds two meters; Secondly, after entering April, there were frequent extreme weather in the mountainous areas, resulting in the freshly cleared road section being covered by snowfall again. Third, due to the rapid rise in temperature recently, it is easy to cause secondary avalanches and landslides. To this end, the relevant departments have sent additional personnel and mobilized more machinery to invest in the snow clearing operation. Up to now, a total of 1.85 million cubic meters of snow has been cleared from each section of the Duku Highway.
The snow clearing site of the Duku Highway Hashilegendaban. Screenshot of the video
"Ten miles of different days, one day to travel four seasons", known as "China's most beautiful highway", the Duku Highway runs through the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, is a landmark landscape road, and the annual opening time has attracted much attention.
Duku Highway is located in the middle of the Tianshan Mountains, from Dushanzi District of Karamay City in the north to Kuqa City in the south, with a total length of 561 kilometers. Among them, the northern section is zero kilometers from Dushanzi to Nalati, a total of 230 kilometers; The middle section is Nalati 0 km to Bayinbrook Town, a total of 61 km; The southern section is from Bayinbrook Town to Kuqa, a total of 270 kilometers.
The terrain of Duku Highway is special, there are many sharp bends and steep slopes, there are more than 280 kilometers of road section above 2000 meters above sea level, affected by natural factors such as snowfall and ice in winter in the Tianshan Mountains, Duku Highway has a closed period of up to 8 months every year.
Cartography/Pomegranate Cloud client
According to relevant reports, from 2016 to 2023, most of the Duku Highway will be reopened to traffic in June, of which the earliest in 2017 will be May 30, and the latest in 2021 will be July 4.
Source synthesis: CCTV news client, pomegranate cloud client