Over the years, China's infrastructure construction has overcome countless hardships and won the title of "infrastructure maniac" for our country. But you know what? In the "difficult list" of Chinese builders, in addition to the common environmental, technical, logistical support, foreign political instability and other problems, there will also be problems left over from the war
The completion of the Benguela Railway in Angola, rebuilt by the Chinese construction team in 2014, immediately shocked the world, because not only did China Railway Construction use Chinese standards to refresh the record for the longest railway built at one time overseas, but also because the Benguela Railway was also known as the most dangerous railway in the world, because there were more than 20 million mines in Angola in the early twentieth century, and the original Guerra Railway was the place where the war was most intense and the area where many mines were buried
So when Angola began its post-war reconstruction work and took out $1.83 billion in 2002 to build the Benguela Railway, almost no one was willing to undertake it, but China Railway Construction was willing to gnaw this hard bone, and from design to procurement to construction, Chinese companies were responsible, and the entire railway line adopted Chinese railway construction standards, so what happened in Angola? And why is China willing to take on such a dangerous railway? This chapter takes you through the story behind the Benguela Railway
Angola is a country in southwest Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, in the era of geographical discovery, the Portuguese first reached here, and then for hundreds of years, white people engaged in the trade of black slaves here, bringing heavy suffering to the Angolan people, and later Angola became Portugal's most economically valuable and richest colony, which is really ironic
After the end of the Second World War, the world national independence movement flourished, but the Portuguese were unwilling to give up the plundered interests, and later in the continuous struggle of the Angolan people, Portugal was forced to recognize Angolan independence in 1975, but due to the intervention of international forces, the post-independence Angola fell into a long civil war, and it was not until the civil war ended in 2002
However, the 27-year-long war has long left Angola devastated, so the Angolan government decided to carry out post-war reconstruction work, the highlight of which was the Benguela Railway. In fact, in 1902, the Portuguese colonists spent 30 years to build the Benguela Railway in Angola, but the speed was only about 30 kilometers per hour, but it was such a railway, which was also the main transportation route of Angola, and it was concerned by all factions in the civil war, and it was also the most fierce place of war, and different armies buried a large number of mines along the railway
And the Angolan government launched a bidding process as soon as the war ended, although the project amount is quite large, but in the face of work danger, many countries and enterprises still retreat, everyone wants to make money, but also have to spend, plus Angola has just achieved peace, many people are worried that the country's political instability, may fall back into the civil war, so investment, construction will soon be lost
And the original Guerra Railway was almost completely destroyed in the civil war, coupled with the special care of the buried mines to increase the difficulty of construction, if there is no original railway, the builders will not encounter so many mines and potholes in the foundation, but the Benguela Railway is 1344 kilometers long, is the national artery across Angola, although Angola after the end of the civil war is devastated, but for the development of the country's economy, the construction of the Benguela Railway is an urgent matter, and China as a friend of African countries, Naturally, it is necessary to help Angola build railways
In fact, China also has other ideas, one is that China's infrastructure must go out to prove its strength, and at the same time, the construction of the Benguela Railway can also bring a lot of foreign exchange income to China, and the second is that Angola contains a lot of oil, and China's development is the most need for oil and other resources, originally we have no problem buying oil, but to help them build railways, we can strengthen the relationship between the two countries and provide a safer guarantee for China's oil supply
In 2004, China Railway Construction 20th Bureau Group is fully responsible for the construction of Benguela Railway, at the beginning of the project construction, the first problem encountered by the construction team is the problem of material transportation, Angola is still one of the least developed countries in the world, industry, manufacturing is very backward, although mineral resources are rich, but there is no ability to mine and smelt
It is conceivable that when the civil war was just over, Angola had nothing, so even the basic steel, cement and other building materials were all transported by China, but these materials and large machinery and equipment and subsequent locomotives and vehicles were purchased from China, which also drove China's import and export trade of more than 3 billion yuan
Of course, the biggest difficulty in building the Benguela Railway is the problem of mines that we have been talking about earlier, these mines are not only numerous, but also a variety of mines, in addition to infantry mines for people, there are many anti-tank mines, people walk past it is fine, but locomotives or construction vehicles will detonate when they pass, for this situation, the Chinese side has no way, and even two workers died of lightning during construction
Our construction team can not have the equipment and operators for demining, in order to solve this problem, we can only contact the Angolan military to let them assist in demining, when the Benguela Railway was built, it was the Angolan army that eliminated a minefield, the Chinese construction team followed up, built a part of the railway, and finally pushed forward step by step, the Benguela Railway was finally completed
In addition, China's iron construction group encountered more than these problems, Angola's domestic infrastructure is weak, health conditions are too poor, mango flies, vampire worms and other harmful diseases and insects are very many, and Angola's domestic malaria is very contagious, in order to cope with this situation, China specially set up hospitals at the construction site, strengthen medical security capabilities, but even so, there are still many workers due to disease sacrifice, in fact, in the 10 years of railway construction process, there are more than 20 Chinese workers, because of disease, mine, He died in Angola due to traffic accidents and other reasons
But it was worth it, and on August 13, 2014, the Entire China-built Benguela Railway, which runs from Lobito to Luo, runs through angola with 67 stations and a design speed of 90 kilometers per hour, making it the fastest railway ever built in Angola
After the railway was opened, it greatly promoted the economic development of Angola, and at the same time, the Benguela Railway was also connected with the railways of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (KINC), Zambia, Tanzania, and the three countries, so that Africa connected the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean on the land subway road, all of which will promote africa's economic development, and this is what China hopes to see
Although China's infrastructure is very good, we must not forget that this is the Chinese builders through countless efforts to buy, and many people have paid the price of their lives, let us continue to cheer for Chinese builders