The northernmost high-speed railway has made new progress, crossing permafrost regions for many years
The reporter learned from China Railway Harbin Bureau that at 13:00 on September 5, with the last 715 ton, 32 meter long box girder accurately landed at the designated location, all the bridges of the Harbin-Yichun High-speed Railway pilot project were completed, laying a solid foundation for the track laying of the whole line.
The Harbin Yichang High speed Railway starts from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, passes through Suihua City and ends at Yichun City. The main line is 299km long and the design speed is 250km/h. Harbin-Yichun High-speed Railway is composed of Harbin Tieli Section and Tieli Yichun Section. Among them, the pilot project of the Tieyi Railway started construction in 2021, which is the northernmost high-speed railway under construction in China and also the first high-speed railway in China to cross permafrost regions.
The lowest temperature in the construction area of the Tieyi Railway can reach minus 40 degrees Celsius. There are 14 island shaped permafrost zones distributed along the line, including rich ice permafrost, multi ice permafrost, saturated ice permafrost, and soil containing ice layer, with a maximum freezing depth of 7 meters. The route also passes through nearly 50 kilometers of pristine forests, secondary water source protection areas, and Riyue Gorge National Forest Park and other scenic spots.
"Due to the complex geological structure along the route and the distribution of seasonal permafrost frost heave in multiple locations, the sensitivity and stability are high, and temperature changes can easily cause melting and settlement, which brings great difficulties to construction." Yang Xushu, the project leader of the Tieyi Railway Pilot Project of China Railway 22nd Bureau Group, said that during the construction process, the construction unit overcame multiple technical difficulties such as soft soil subgrade and permafrost subgrade, filling multiple technical gaps and accumulating valuable experience for the construction of high-speed railways in permafrost areas of China.
According to reports, the Harbin-Yichun High-speed Railway is an important transportation infrastructure to implement the new round of revitalization strategy of the old industrial base in the northeast and connect with the "China Mongolia Russia Economic Corridor". After the completion of the project, the railway travel time from Harbin to Yichun will be shortened from about 7 hours to less than 2 hours. This will further improve the high-speed railway network in Northeast China, accelerate industrial agglomeration, personnel exchanges, and foreign trade cooperation between the northern border areas and developed inland areas, and provide strong support for the revitalization of the economy in Heilongjiang.