BEIJING: In the past two years, deep canyons and steep cliffs were the worksites for Feng Zhiguo, an engineer with China Railway Major Bridge Reconnaissance and Design Institute Co. Ltd., a company famous for designing large bridges.
While working as a project manager tasked with finding sites to anchor the piers of a gigantic bridge on the Nujiang River, he got the nickname “antelope” for his adeptness at scaling mountains. Every day, Feng walked for hours in the mountains, conducting geological survey.
The bridge will be one of the numerous ones to be built for the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the second rail route into Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China. Feng joined the project in 2018, in preparation for building the railway’s middle section linking Yaan in Sichuan Province and Nyingchi in Tibet. The construction officially started on November 8.
The railway will play an important role in safeguarding national unity, promoting ethnic solidarity and consolidating stability in border areas, President Xi Jinping said, adding that it will also contribute significantly to the economic and social development of the western region, especially Sichuan and Tibet.
“It is an honor for me to participate in this project of a century. It can help improve our work,” Feng said.
A challenging project: The 1,600-km railway is expected to shorten the travel time between Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and Lhasa, capital of Tibet, from 48 hours to 13. It is divided into three sections. The eastern section, from Chengdu to Yaan was put into operation in December 2018. The construction of the western section, from Lhasa to Nyingchi in Tibet, started in 2015, and has been progressing smoothly. The middle section has a designed length of 1,011 km and speed of 120 km to 200 km per hour. – The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
