Water, Land and Air Transport: Circulating Network (Part 1)
Section 1: Multi-dimensional Transport Expands Time and Space. Hunan's Earliest Ancient Road — Qin Shi Huang's Southern Expedition Route. Also known as the "Xiang-Yue Ancient Road," it lies in Zhelingtou, Dengjiatang Village, Suxian District, Chenzhou. Built in 214 BC with a 2–3 meter wide stone-paved surface, it was a key route from the Central Plains to Lingnan and can be called the ancestor of China's highways.
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section One
Three-dimensional transportation expands time and space
Hunan's earliest ancient road — the Ancient Road of Qin Shi Huang's Southern Expedition
The Ancient Road of Qin Shi Huang's Southern Expedition, also known as the "Xiang-Yue Ancient Road," is located in Zhelingtou Group, Dengjiatang Village, Suxian District, Chenzhou City. It was first built in 214 BC, with a stone-slab surface 2-3 meters wide. In ancient times it was a vital transportation route from the Central Plains to Lingnan, and can be called the ancestor of China's highways. According to research by the Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, it is the earliest and relatively well-preserved ancient post road among those surviving in the province. The Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau will designate this ancient post road as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit, and making an ancient road a cultural relic protection unit is the first such case in the country.
China's first standard automobile highway — the Changtan Highway
In 1913, Hunan built China's first modern highway — the Changtan (Changsha to Xiangtan) Highway, with a total length of 50 kilometers. A total of 566,000 cubic meters of earth and stone were completed for the entire roadbed, 34,825 cubic meters of sand were laid, 31 bridges of various sizes and 86 culverts were built, along with one wharf on the east bank and 5 revetments, at a total cost of 900,000 silver dollars. The entire line was completed and opened to traffic in November 1921. It was China's first standard automobile highway, occupying an important place in the history of China's highways and marking the beginning of modern highway transportation in Hunan.
China's most precipitous highway with the most ingenious engineering design — the Aizhai Highway
The Aizhai Highway is located on the north slope of Aizhai and is the most dangerous pass on the Xiang-Yu Highway. Its precipitous terrain and ingenious engineering design rank first among highways nationwide. Within a horizontal distance of less than 100 meters, this section of highway has a vertical height of 440 meters, with a gradient of about 70-90 degrees. Driving on the highway is like traveling through clouds: now winding upward along a figure "8," now flying across a sky bridge, like climbing a ladder to heaven. From the top of the slope to the bottom there are thirteen major turns in total, and the road surface structure is also uniquely ingenious. Looking down from the sky bridge at Aizhai below the slope is like looking at the earth from an airplane. One section not far from Jishou is called the "Aizhai Highway Wonder" and has become a special scenic spot in Xiangxi.
Hunan's earliest highway to begin construction — the Lianyi Expressway
The Lianyi Expressway is a section within Hunan of National Highway 320 from Shanghai to Kunming. It starts in the east at Lianhuachong in Liling City at the Hunan-Jiangxi border and ends in the west at Yijiawan in Xiangtan City, with a total length of 71.29 kilometers. Of this, the expressway is 23.18 kilometers long and the Class II automobile dedicated road is 48.13 kilometers long. It is an important transportation trunk line in eastern Hunan and one of the key construction projects during the national "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period. Construction officially began in December 1989 and it was completed and opened to traffic in December 1994. It is the earliest expressway in Hunan to begin construction.
"Hunan's No. 1 Road" — the Changji Expressway
The Chang(de)ji(shou) Expressway, with an investment of 10.6 billion yuan and a total length of 223.7 kilometers, is called "Hunan's No. 1 Road." It is an important section of the Changsha to Chongqing highway, one of the eight highways in the national key planning and construction for the Western Development Program, and was at the time Hunan's largest expressway construction project in terms of investment, longest in mileage, and most complex in engineering. Construction began in March 2004. The entire line has 127 bridges, 529 passages, and 35 tunnels, ranking first among Hunan expressways in the number of tunnels and bridges. The opening of the Changji Expressway ended the history of no expressways in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
Hunan's most difficult highway to construct — the Shaohuai Expressway
The Shaohuai Expressway is a section in Hunan of the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, a main national highway trunk line under the national key construction project of "five vertical and seven horizontal" routes. It is by far Hunan's expressway project with the most arduous engineering, the most difficult construction, and the harshest conditions, and it took 4 years of construction to complete. The total investment in the project was 8.36 billion yuan, with a total length of 168 kilometers. The total length of bridges and tunnels along the entire line is close to one third of the mileage. In the design and construction of the Xuefengshan Tunnel, the project successfully implemented 10 technological innovations, achieving a lateral error of zero millimeters and an elevation error of only 7 millimeters, as well as an excellent record of "zero deaths" and no collapse accidents in construction.
Hunan's highway with the longest tunnel — the Zhangjiajie Yuyuan Highway
The Yuyuan Highway is an important highway leading into Zhangjiajie's core scenic area, with a total length of 5,651.51 meters, a road surface width of 8.5 meters, and a carriageway of 7 meters. Among them, the main Yuyuan Tunnel is 2,714 meters long, making it currently the longest highway tunnel in Hunan. After the opening of the Yuyuan Highway, the route to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park bade farewell to the winding mountain road built in the 1980s with its low grade, high altitude, and major safety hazards, and can also save 30 minutes of driving time. Therefore, the Yuyuan Highway is called Zhangjiajie's "tourism expressway."
Hunan's shortest expressway — the Shaoshan Expressway
The Shaoshan Expressway starts at the Shaoshan interchange of the Shangrui Expressway and ends at Dongjiangkou in Qingxi Town, Shaoshan City. The main line of the project is 13 kilometers long, making it the shortest expressway in Hunan Province. It is also a demonstration road for the province's construction of a "two-oriented society" and set several provincial "firsts," such as shallow-dish grass-planted ecological side ditches, flexible cable guardrails, and ecological slope protection, all adopted for the first time on a provincial expressway. The Shaoshan Expressway has a total of 3 main-line bridges, 2 interchanges, and 12 separated overpasses, with a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour, a roadbed width of 26 meters, and a construction period of 2 years.
The world's No. 1 highway wonder — the Tianmen Mountain winding highway
The Tianmen Mountain winding highway in Zhangjiajie is known as the "Road to Heaven." Construction began in 1998 and it was fully opened in 2005. The winding highway is 10.77 kilometers long in total, with the altitude rising sharply from 200 meters to 1,300 meters. On both sides of the avenue are sheer cliffs thousands of meters high and deep empty valleys. There are 99 turns in total, with 180-degree sharp turns following one after another, like a jade belt winding around, turn after turn closely linked, rising layer upon layer, and it is hailed as the "world's No. 1 highway wonder." Tianmen Mountain is the highest mountain in Zhangjiajie's Yongding District, only 8 kilometers from the urban area of Zhangjiajie, and is named after the natural wonder Tianmen Cave.
Hunan's first railway — the Liling-Zhuzhou Railway
In the 24th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1898), the Qing government decided to build the Ping(xiang)-Li(ling) Railway. Construction began on the fourth day of the eighth month of the following year and was completed on the twenty-eighth day of the sixth month of the 29th year (August 20, 1903). Later, Zhang Zhidong and Gan Huaiixuan submitted a memorial and received approval to extend the Pingli Railway to Zhuzhou. Construction of the Li(ling)-Zhu(zhou) section began on the first day of the seventh month of the 29th year of Guangxu (1900) and was completed on the twenty-ninth day of the tenth month of the 31st year. It was the first railway within Hunan Province, and Liling Station, completed in June of the same year, was Hunan's first railway station.
Hunan's first joint-stock railway — the Shichang Railway
The Shichang Railway is a railway from Shimen to Changsha, with the entire line located within Hunan. The Shichang Railway is a national Class I railway trunk line, and ground was broken in 1993. It starts in the west at Shimen North Station on the Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway and connects in the east to Laodaohe Station on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, running across the four major river systems of the Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li rivers within Hunan Province, the "land of fish and rice." It has a total length of 264 kilometers, with 31 stations in total, 11 extra-large bridges, 73 large and medium bridges, and 18 tunnels, with a total investment of 3.5 billion yuan. It is Hunan's first joint-stock railway, jointly built by the Ministry of Railways of China and the Hunan Provincial Government, and managed and operated by the Shichang Railway Co., Ltd.
The international airport with the largest passenger throughput in central China — Changsha Huanghua International Airport
Changsha Huanghua International Airport was first built in June 1986 and officially opened on August 29, 1989. After expansion and renovation, the airport's flight area is now Class 4D, with a new terminal building of 34,000 square meters and a parking lot of 22,000 square meters. The airport currently has a runway 2,600 meters long and a parallel taxiway of equal length, with communication and navigation systems such as ILS, VOR/DME, and NDB, as well as advanced and complete ground safety and service support equipment and facilities, capable of supporting the takeoff and landing of large passenger aircraft such as Boeing 737, 757, and 767, Airbus 320, and McDonnell Douglas 82. In 1993, Huanghua Airport ranked among the nation's top 20 airports and became an international scheduled flight airport. In 2006, passenger throughput reached 6.6 million, ranking first among the six central provinces and making it the airport with the largest international passenger throughput in central China.
Hunan's largest tourism regional airport — Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport
Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport is the largest tourism regional airport in Hunan Province, located in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. The airport opened to traffic on August 18, 1994. It currently covers an area of 200 hectares and is a Class 4D airport, with a runway 2,600 meters long and 45 meters wide. The parallel taxiway of equal length to the runway is divided into east and west sections, and the west parallel taxiway was put into use at the end of 2008. The apron has a total of 19 parking positions, capable of accommodating aircraft of 250 seats and below. The airport has a two-way instrument landing system, allowing aircraft to take off and land in both directions. The first-generation terminal building put into use in 1994 has a construction area of 9,557 square meters and is composed of three "A"-shaped canopy stilt houses, fully embodying the traditional architectural features of the local Tujia stilt houses and possessing strong ethnic characteristics. Its capacity can meet the needs of 600 passengers at peak hours, an annual passenger throughput of 1.5 million, and a cargo and mail throughput of 8,000 tons.
Hunan's largest comprehensive transportation hub — the new Changsha Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line
As one of the three major station buildings of the Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line, the new Changsha Station is located in the eastern part of Changsha City. It occupies a transportation-center position in Hunan's rail construction and is a large comprehensive transportation hub integrating railways, subways, buses, taxis, suburban long-distance buses, and many other forms of automobile transport. In terms of functionality, systematicness, advanced nature, cultural character, and economy, the new Changsha Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou line is an internationally leading and domestically first-class station building. Construction first began in Changsha on June 23, 2005, and it officially began operation on December 26, 2009. The new Changsha Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line has become the largest comprehensive transportation hub from Hunan to central China, accelerating the integration process of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan and promoting Hunan's economy to further integrate with the world.
The largest freight marshalling station in southern China — Zhuzhou North Station
Zhuzhou North Station is located in the northeastern suburbs of Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. It is one of the nation's top ten network marshalling stations and a transportation hub connecting East China, South China, Southwest China, and the North. It mainly handles the arrival and breakup, marshalling and departure of freight trains from the four directions of the two major trunk lines, the Beijing-Guangzhou and Shanghai-Kunming railways, as well as the through operation of passenger trains in all directions. Zhuzhou North Station is the largest freight marshalling station in southern China and is also a special-class station, handling 17,000 trains and marshalling 12,000 trains per day on average. At the same time, the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway has a first-class station in Zhuzhou.
The world's tallest sightseeing elevator — Bailong Elevator
The Bailong Elevator is located in the core scenic area of Zhangjiajie World Natural Heritage. It stands alone in the world with three laurels: "the world's tallest, largest-capacity, and fastest outdoor fully exposed sightseeing elevator." It is the only vertical transportation tool from Shuiraosimen across the sheer cliffs to the Yuanjiajie scenic area. The elevator is built against the mountain, with a total height of 335 meters and an operating height of 326 meters. It consists of a 156-meter vertical shaft inside the mountain body and a 171-meter steel structure derrick attached to the mountain, with 3 elevators running side by side in separate units, capable of carrying 3,000 tourists per hour, at a total cost of 180 million yuan.
China's first Ferris wheel built on a giant roof — the Changsha Ferris Wheel
The Changsha Ferris Wheel is located in the East Square of Changsha New Century Sports and Culture Center. Its most remarkable feature is that it stands on a giant roof. Building a Ferris wheel on a roof is not only the first in China but also the first in the world. The Ferris wheel has a diameter of 99 meters, with the top of the wheel 104 meters from the roof surface and the highest point 120 meters above the ground below, with a total of 60 gondolas installed, capable of accommodating 360 people at the same time. The Ferris wheel cabins are fully enclosed devices, with 6 seats at the base and a transparent top cover on the upper part. All cabins are equipped with heating and cooling air conditioning, leather sofa seats, and background music. One revolution of the Ferris wheel takes about 20 minutes, allowing visitors to view the scenery of the entire city of Changsha. It has become a provincial capital amusement center integrating leisure, entertainment, dining, and sightseeing, and is also the largest amusement project in Hunan Province to date.
Hunan's cableway with the longest single span — the Nanyue Cableway
The Nanyue Cableway was jointly built by five parties: Nanyue District Cableway Transport Company, Hunan Provincial Tourism Development Corporation, CTS Scenic Area Investment Co., Ltd., (Asia-Pacific) China Investment Co., Ltd., and Malaysia Hualian Group, with a total investment of more than 32 million yuan, and officially opened to traffic on October 18, 1995. The cableway has a total length of 1,710.8 meters, a vertical drop of 472 meters, a maximum vertical height above the ground of 147 meters, and a single span of 1,306 meters, making it currently the cableway with the longest single span in Hunan. The gondola has a passenger capacity of 50 people, with a two-way passenger volume of 1,000 people per hour, and one trip takes as little as 5 minutes. "Riding the cableway in all four seasons is like a song and a dream." When visiting Nanyue, riding the cableway gives one the feeling that "such a scene should exist only in heaven, rarely encountered in the human world."
An aerial mobile sightseeing corridor — the Tianmen Mountain Cableway
The Tianmen Mountain Cableway has a total length of 7,455 meters and a horizontal height difference of 1,279 meters, making it the world's longest single-line circulating detachable grip cabin-type cableway. The cableway took 2 years to build and cost 220 million RMB. One section has a climbing angle design of up to 38 degrees, which is rare in China and even in the world. The entire cableway starts from the city garden in the center of Zhangjiajie and goes directly to the primitive aerial garden at the top of Tianmen Mountain, like a rainbow flying between the human world and heaven, and also like a giant dragon soaring through the white clouds and sky, clinging to the mountain and leaning against the cliffs, magnificent and spectacular. Along the way, the cableway passes through modern urban scenery, beautiful pastoral scenery, and majestic alpine scenery, and can be called the world's No. 1 aerial mobile sightseeing corridor.
The World's First Composite Bridge Combining the Features of a Cable-Stayed Bridge and an Arch Bridge — the Xiangtan Liancheng Bridge
The Xiangtan Liancheng Bridge is located four kilometers downstream of the Third Xiangjiang River Bridge in Xiangtan City. It has a total length of 1,344.96 meters and a deck width of 27 meters. It is the world's first-ever application of a brand-new composite bridge type — a cable-stayed flying-swallow-style concrete-filled steel tube tied-arch bridge, and the world's first composite bridge type integrating the design features of both cable-stayed and arch bridges. Its 400-meter single steel tube arch span ranks first in the history of world bridge building, and it also features a tall main tower (the east and west towers each exceed 100 meters in height, equivalent to a 40-story building), a long main span (a 400-meter main span, the longest among bridges in Hunan), and the world's longest tie rod (640 meters, ranking first among bridges worldwide). It can truly be called an 'encyclopedia of complex bridge construction in the world.'
Hunan's Longest-Span Stone Arch Bridge — the Fenghuang Wuchao River Bridge
The Wuchao River Bridge is located over the Wuchao River gorge at the source of the Tuo River in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province. It is 8 meters wide, with a main span of 120 meters and a total length of 241 meters. It was completed and opened to traffic in 1990, and was the world's longest-span stone arch bridge at that time. Its superstructure arrangement consists of 91 spandrel arches of 13 meters each. The main arch ring is composed of two separated rectangular ribs and 8 reinforced concrete transverse tie beams, giving the structure a light and elegant form.
China's No. 1 Bridge in Width-to-Span Ratio — the Maocaijie Bridge
The Maocaijie Bridge is located at the Maocaijie ferry crossing in Nan County. The bridge has a total length of 7,579.7 meters and an estimated total investment of 376.3 million yuan. The main bridge is a three-span continuous self-anchored half-through steel tube arch bridge (commonly known as a 'flying bird' type). Its main span of 368 meters ranks first among bridges of the same type in China for single-span length, and its width-to-span ratio ranks first in the world. It is currently one of the most difficult bridges in China in terms of underwater construction. During construction, Hunan Road & Bridge Construction Group adopted for the first time the most advanced half-through steel tube single-arch structure in China, marking another major technical breakthrough in China's bridge history.
China's Highway Bridge with the Longest Main Span — the Jingyue Yangtze River Highway Bridge
The north bank of the Jingyue Yangtze River Highway Bridge is located in Bailuo Town, Jianli, Hubei Province, and the south bank is in Daorenji Town, Yunxi District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province. The bridge type is a twin-tower steel box girder cable-stayed bridge. It is the first Yangtze River bridge connecting Hubei and Hunan provinces. The bridge has a total length of more than 5,400 meters and is designed with six lanes in both directions. Its main span reaches 816 meters, ranking sixth in the world among bridges of the same type, and it is currently the highway bridge with the longest main span in China. The bridge connects the Beijing-Zhuhai duplicate line, shortens the straight-line distance between Hunan and Hubei provinces, and accelerates the strategic connection between the Greater Wuhan City Circle and the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration.
China's Largest Balanced Swing-Construction Steel Truss Arch Bridge — the Baojing Xianren Bridge
The Baojing Xianren Bridge is located at the border between Yangchao Township and Xianren Township in Baojing County, situated in the middle section where the Shuxi and Mixi gullies flow into the Tangjia River (a tributary of the Youshui River). The bridge site features deep gullies, steep mountain slopes, and treacherous terrain. The total length of the bridge is 145 meters, with a main span of 80 meters. The clear width of the deck is 7 meters, and the relative height difference from the riverbed to the bridge deck is more than 60 meters. Construction began in December 1986, the swing closure was completed in October 1988, and the bridge was finished in May 1989. It is currently China's largest steel truss arch bridge constructed using the balanced swing method. This steel truss arch swing bridge with a clear span of 80 meters was the first in Xiangxi to be independently designed and constructed, solving the problem of being unable to build bridges in deep-water mountain gullies. The bridge has won the Hunan Provincial Excellent Design Award, the Quality Engineering Award, and the Second Prize for Regional Science and Technology Progress. Its design and construction techniques have now been incorporated into university textbooks on roads and bridges. The Xianren Bridge is a work-relief bridge with low investment, high benefits, and high technological content — a major innovation in the history of work-relief bridge building.
China's First Large Bridge to Adopt Triangular Stability — the Houzishi Bridge
The Houzishi Bridge, also known as the Third Xiangjiang River Bridge of Changsha and the South Xiangjiang River Bridge of Changsha, is an extra-large bridge spanning the Xiangjiang River on the Second Ring Road of Changsha City. The bridge was completed and opened to traffic on September 20, 2000. It has a total length of 1,389.62 meters and a main bridge width of 27 meters. The height of the bridge piers decreases progressively from the center of the bridge toward both sides. It adopts V-shaped diagonal bracing, and the main span combination is 66 meters × 3 × 88 meters × 66 meters. It is currently the first large bridge in China to adopt triangular stability in construction, representing a major breakthrough in bridge construction.
China's Longest Inland River Highway Bridge — the Yueyang Dongting Lake Bridge
The Yueyang Dongting Lake Bridge has a total length of 5,747.82 meters and was the longest inland river highway bridge in China at that time. The bridge was the first to achieve the leap of concrete cable-stayed bridges from single-tower and twin-tower structures to multi-tower structures. It was the first in China to realize the forced vibration method for measuring bridge flutter derivatives through wind tunnel tests, making a creative contribution to China's bridge wind tunnel testing technology. It was also the first in China to carry out quantitative observational research on cable vibration, and successfully developed and installed the world's first cable vibration damping system using modern magnetorheological control technology.
The First Bridge over the Xiangjiang River — the Heishipu Bridge
The Heishipu Bridge, also known as the Fifth Xiangjiang River Bridge, is an extra-large bridge spanning the Xiangjiang River on the southern section of the Changsha Ring Road, located at Heishipu. The bridge has a total length of 3,068 meters. The main bridge consists of a three-span steel tube arch and 11 continuous arches. The deck is 34 meters wide, with six lanes in both directions and a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour. It was completed and opened to traffic in May 2004. Compared with existing bridges spanning the Xiangjiang River, the Heishipu Bridge sets records for length, width, and speed, and can truly be called the 'First Bridge over the Xiangjiang River.' Its scale ranks first in China among bridges of the same type.
Hunan's Oldest Surviving Bridge — the Taojiang Niujian Bridge
The Niujian Bridge is located in Niujianqiao Village, Shiniu Township, Taojiang County, and is also known as 'the First Primitive Bridge of Southern Chu.' The bridge was first built in the tenth year of the Yuanhe era of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty (815 AD). It is a five-arch stone pier and stone beam bridge. The bridge is 20 meters long and 3.87 meters wide, with arch spans of 1.7 to 2.5 meters. Each stone beam is 55 centimeters thick, 78 centimeters wide, 7.2 meters long, and weighs 7 tons. The abutments and piers are also made of massive stones, and the structure is exceptionally solid, demonstrating the superb bridge-building technology of the Tang Dynasty. It is the oldest surviving bridge known in Hunan.
Hunan's Longest Highway Bridge — the Hanshou Cang'erzong Yuanshui River Bridge
The Cang'erzong Yuanshui River Bridge is located at the Cang'erzong section of the Yuanshui River in Hanshou. It has a total length of 7,281 meters and is currently the longest highway bridge in Hunan. The project has a total investment of 450 million yuan. Construction officially began on November 1, 2005, with a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour according to Grade II highway standards. After completion, the bridge plays a positive role in the economic development and flood control and safety of the counties (cities) in the West Dongting Lake area. It is part of the Hunan Provincial Government's 'Dongting Lake Area Bridge Unblocking Project' and is one of the projects the provincial government has undertaken to deliver practical benefits to the people.
Hunan's Longest-Span Prestressed Concrete Continuous Beam Bridge — the Yiyang Baisha Bridge
The Yiyang Baisha Bridge has a total length of 1,577.04 meters and is currently the longest-span prestressed concrete continuous beam bridge in our province. The bridge design adopted bored friction piles up to 70 meters long, setting a record for the longest pile foundation in our province. It developed a complete set of design and construction technologies for ultra-long pile foundations on soft soil foundations. It also developed China's most advanced new type of cable-stayed cantilever casting traveler, with a self-weight to cantilever casting weight ratio of 0.2:1, which has important reference significance for the construction of other bridges in the lake area.
The World's Largest-Span River-Crossing Tunnel — the Wuhan-Guangzhou Liuyang River Tunnel
The Liuyang River Tunnel on the Wuhan-Guangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line starts from the south side of Xiaoxiang West Road in Changsha County in the north, passes through the Niujiaochong interchange where the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway and Changyong Expressway intersect, goes through the dense cluster of buildings and residential areas in the Xingsha Development Zone, then crosses the Liuyang River, and ends at the south side of the auxiliary road of the Changsha Airport Expressway in the south, with a total length of 10.115 kilometers. The Liuyang River Tunnel is a controlling project on the Wuhan-Guangzhou Line. It is China's first railway tunnel to cross a city, a river, and an expressway, and is an extra-long, extra-large cross-section tunnel in China. The tunnel is a double-track passenger dedicated line, with a maximum excavation width exceeding 16 meters, an excavation height exceeding 13 meters, a cross-sectional area exceeding 160 square meters, and an average burial depth of 30 to 50 meters, which is rarely seen in domestic railway interval tunnels. The Liuyang River Tunnel is comprehensively difficult to construct, with six characteristics: long distance, large cross-section, soft surrounding rock, high risk, tight schedule, and new technology. It encompasses almost all domestic tunnel construction techniques, and the project builders ultimately overcame this world-class challenge.
Hunan's Longest Highway Tunnel — the Xuefengshan Tunnel
The Xuefeng Mountains, like a giant python, stretch across the two cities of Shaoyang and Huaihua. Today, the completion of the 7,023-meter-long Xuefengshan Tunnel has realized a dream of the people of Hunan that has lasted for a thousand years. The Xuefengshan Tunnel set a record for the longest tunnel in Hunan, and is also the project with the largest investment, the longest construction period, the most complex geological conditions, and the most arduous construction in the history of Hunan's expressway construction. The entire tunnel uses high-tech tunnel lighting, ventilation, communications, emergency rescue, and other supporting facilities. It operates 24-hour seamless monitoring to ensure the safety of passing vehicles. From the original journey of at least one hour to cross the Xuefeng Mountains to just eight minutes now, the Xuefengshan Tunnel has not only turned a thousand-year natural barrier between Shaoyang and Huaihua into a smooth road, but also boosted the development of greater Xiangxi and the rise of the entire great Southwest. It also marks that Hunan's tunnel construction level is at the forefront of the nation.