The Great China's Civil Engineering That Winds Through Mountain Ranges More About "SET" in China

Yichang-Wanzhou Railroad Winds Through Mountainous Areas

The Yichang–Wanzhou Railway, or the Yiwan Railway (宜万铁路) connects the cities of Yichang (Hubei Province) and Wanzhou (Chongqing Municipality) via Lichuan, in the central People's Republic of China. It was completed in 2010, and will be part of the future Huhanrong Passenger Dedicated Line from Shanghai to Wuhan to Chengdu. 

The 377 km long railway crosses the remarkably difficult terrain of southwestern Hubei (Yichang City and Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture) and the eastern part of the Chongqing Municipality (Wanzhou District). The region has numerous mountains and is sometimes referred to as "the eastern edge" of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Until recently, the region had no railways, and hardly any paved roads are being built along the same corridor.

According to the chief engineer, Zhang Mei, the line was the most difficult ever constructed in China. Operation started on 22 December 2010.

Out of the entire length of the rail line, 324 km are in Hubei and 53 km in Chongqing Municipality. Owing to the difficult terrain, the project involves a large number of bridges (including two over the Yangtze River: the Wanzhou Railway Bridge and the Yichang Railway Bridge) and tunnels. Out of the line's total 377 km length, 288 km runs on bridges or in tunnels. This made the line the most difficult and the most expensive (per kilometre) of all China's railways to date. At a cost of U.S. $9.01 million per kilometre, the per-kilometre construction costs were twice as high as those for the Qinghai–Tibet Railway which cost U.S. $4.35 million per kilometre. (Source - wikipedia)

Below are aerial view photos taken on Aug. 14, 2015 shows a high-speed train running out of a mountain tunnel as it runs on the Yichang-Wanzhou High-speed Railroad, which is built on a viaduct, in Enshi, central China's Hubei Province. The 377-kilometer-long Yichang-Wanzhou Railroad, which is regarded as the most difficult railroad ever built in China, winds through mountainous areas from its eastern station Yichang in Hubei Province to western station Wanzhou in southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua)

Video of China's Most Difficult and Expensive Rail Route

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