World’s longest tunnel to open in China's Xinjiang by year-end
China’s Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the world’s longest expressway tunnel, is set to open to traffic by the end of this year, creating a new shortcut connecting the southern and northern regions of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
At a press conference, Guo Sheng, deputy director of Xinjiang’s transport department, said the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which passes through the Tianshan Mountains via the tunnel, is expected to ease a longstanding traffic bottleneck that has hindered coordinated development between Xinjiang’s north and south, News.Az reports, citing Xinhua.
Spanning 22.13 kilometers, the tunnel will cut the drive across the middle section of the Tianshan Mountains from several hours to roughly 20 minutes.
Once operational, travel time from the regional capital, Urumqi, north of the mountains, to Korla in the south will drop from seven hours to approximately three hours.
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