On December 26, the G0711 Urumqi-Yuli Expressway officially opened to traffic. It was invested in, constructed and is now operated by China Communications Construction Company Limited. With the opening of the expressway, the travel time from Urumqi to Korla has been reduced from 7 hours to 3.5 hours. As a national key project, the expressway is a core section of the G0711 Urumqi-Ruoqiang Expressway, which is part of the national expressway network.
Starting at Urumqi’s Xishan South Interchange Ring Expressway (West Line), the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway passes through Hejing County, Yanqi Hui Autonomous County and Korla City, and ends at Yuli County, with a total length of 324.7 kilometers. Its construction commenced in April 2020 and was completed in five years and eight months. The 22.13-km Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, a key project of the expressway, is the world’s longest expressway tunnel. The tunnel faced extremely complex construction conditions and unprecedented technical challenges such as the great tunnel length, burial depth, shaft depth, and low temperature, air pressure and oxygen content along the route.
