Tarim Desert Highway

Tarim Desert Highway

Tarim desert highway (Taklimakan desert highway) is the longest highway built in the mobile desert in the world.

There are four desert highways in Tarim, which are Luntai Minfeng, alar Hetian, alar Tazhong and Yuli Qiemo.

geographical environment

The highway is connected to Lunnan Oilfield highway network in the north and national highway 314 in the south, with a total length of 522 km. The mobile desert section of the highway starts from Xiaotang in the north and ends at Chian, 23 kilometers east of Minfeng County in the south, with a total length of 446 kilometers.

Desert highway is a national key scientific and technological project in the Eighth Five Year Plan period. 17 scientific research institutions, more than 180 experts and technicians have participated in the project. They have overcome a series of world-class problems in the construction of highway in the mobile desert, and the project research has reached the international leading level. The subgrade of the desert highway is 10 meters wide and the black pavement is 7 meters. It adopts the construction technology of strong foundation and thin pavement structure, sand base vibration and dry compaction, geotextile reinforcement, and reed fence and reed grid sand control system. The road surface is smooth as a mirror.

The connection of desert highway will play an important role in accelerating the oil and gas exploration and development in Tarim Basin, promoting the economic development and political stability of Xinjiang. At the same time, it also creates good conditions for domestic and foreign tourists to go deep into the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert and carry out desert exploration tourism. At present, there are magnificent desert highway color buildings at the end of 0 km of Lunnan desert highway and qia'an desert highway in Minfeng County. Beside the gatehouse, there are magnificent desert highway introduction monuments. On both sides of the cailou is written a huge couplet of "the eternal dream of changing sand sea into oil field" and "today's miracle desert into thoroughfare". When the car drives into the desert highway, which is called "the road of hope" and "the road of happiness", people can't help but feel the ups and downs of thoughts and feelings!

The desert highway passes through the hinterland of Taklimakan desert from northeast to southwest, and passes through three aeolian geomorphic units in turn. Along the Tarim River, it belongs to the shrub dune area with sporadic complex dune chain along the Tarim River. The dunes here are fixed or semi fixed, with the height ranging from 3 to 5 meters. There are a lot of red willows and Populus euphratica trees growing on the surface. At the 28km and 44km of Tazhong Road, there are large strange shapes on both sides of the road, and Populus euphratica forests withered due to water cut-off.

Desert highway starts from Xiaotang (76km of Tazhong Road) The sand dune chain in the north of Taklimakan desert is about 50 kilometers south of Xiaotang. The sand dune chain is perpendicular to the antegrade wind direction, generally in the northwest southeast direction. The sand dunes begin to form a discontinuous group distribution, with sand ridges of 1-3 meters high, and evolve into a dense crescent sand dune chain of 5-10 meters high in the south. The surface of the dune chain is covered with peak and nest dunes with distinct ridges and secondary ratio of 2-3 meters high. Dead Populus euphratica or scattered Populus euphratica scenic forests can still be seen at 90km and 115km of Tazhong road.

From 130 km of Tazhong Road, it enters the central composite longitudinal dune area of Taklimakan, where the lower crescent dune chain in the north begins to give way to the long strip-shaped huge composite longitudinal dune. The longitudinal dunes are arranged in parallel from northeast to southwest along the wind direction, with a specific height of about 30 meters. There are also 1-3 meters of low sand ridges distributed among the hills. The north end of the complex longitudinal sand dune mainly belongs to dome dune type, while the south end of the complex longitudinal sand dune gradually evolves into composite crescent dune. The sand surface is covered with dune ridges which are nearly square, and the bottom of the honeycomb dune is 3-5 meters deep, even up to 10 meters deep. It shows that in addition to the northeasterly wind, the local change of wind direction is also very obvious, thus forming many vertical ridges of the honeycomb dune. From a distance, the sand dunes here look like countless yellow dragons swimming in the sea. The scales are shining in the sun. From a close view, it looks like sand. Countless beehives have been built on the sea. The veranda is clear, and the color contrast is obvious. It gives people infinite leisure. Tazhong oil field is 295km away from Tazhong Road, which has become a lively oil town. From the southwest of Tazhong oilfield, dry river bed, Populus euphratica forest and Salix psammophila shrub dune can be seen gradually in the desert.

The desert highway is like a long black dragon swimming in the vast sand sea. It stretches along the low land between sand dunes. The maximum fluctuation of the road surface can reach 25 meters. If no protective measures are taken, the road surface will be swallowed by quicksand at any time. The engineering and technical personnel have adopted complete supporting protection facilities to form a complete sand control system with the combination of resistance, fixation, transportation, guidance and control. The reed grass grid area of the north section of the highway (219 km in total) alone is 20 million square meters, and the sand barrier fence made of nylon net and reed row is 446 km long. The grass grid is generally one meter square, and its fortification is determined by the sand dunes and wind conditions on both sides of the highway, and the general width varies from 20 to 100 meters. The barrier is 1.3 meters high and 8 cm thick. The fence and grass grid are rolling with the sand dunes, like a thousand mile chain, which firmly binds the Yellow Dragon and makes it unable to move. Its magnificent momentum is moving, which also adds a unique landscape to the Taklimakan Desert.

Along the desert highway, the desert groundwater will be used to plant Salix, Elaeagnus angustifolia and other drought resistant plants, and six green forest belts will be built on both sides of the highway. The ideal of wearing green on the Taklimakan desert highway will soon become a reality.

Road condition

brief introduction

The desert highway runs through the Taklimakan Desert, which is known as "the sea of death". From top to bottom, the pavement structure of desert section is asphalt, asphalt concrete, graded gravel, natural gravel, geotextile and aeolian sand base. The geogrid sand control system with Chinese characteristics is economical and reliable. That is to say, the reed in Xinjiang is used to make grass grid to fix sand. The width of the grid on the same wind direction side of the road is not less than 50-70cm, and the width of the grid on the downwind side is not less than 30-50cm. On the outside of the grass grid, there is a reed sand barrier, which is buried 0.3 meters in the sand, and the actual height is 1.2 meters. Shao desert highway provides a channel for the exploration and development of oil and gas resources in the hinterland of Tazhong desert. In the process of research and experimental construction, 15 new theories and new understandings have been obtained, 11 new materials and equipment have been developed, 10 new technologies have been adopted, and 10 supporting technologies have been formed, which is worthy of being a high-tech intensive project. The desert highway was opened to traffic before the National Day in 1995, which has profound production, economic and social benefits, and has added rich connotation to the development of the South Silk Road tourism.

Tip: for tourists eager to cross the Tarim Desert, the Tarim desert highway undoubtedly provides the best conditions. It will take about 5 hours to drive through the whole desert by self driving. Along the way, you can see the strange desert landscape and the Millennium Populus euphratica.

The average annual rainfall in the Taklimakan desert is only 25 mm, but the average annual evaporation is 150 times of that. The desert highway greening project started in 2003, with a total length of 436 km and a width of 72-78 M. Drip irrigation technology is adopted in the whole green belt. A irrigation booster station is set up every 2 km. It has been managed by forest rangers for many years. The total annual water consumption is no more than 6 million cubic meters, and the total number of seedlings is more than 18 million. It is known as the first "desert green corridor" in the world.

On the whole desert highway, there are 108 well houses, each of which is under the care of a couple. Every day, they have to take good care of the water protection station where they are located. At the same time, they have to walk several kilometers of roads under their jurisdiction, take care of the fragile vegetation beside the roads, and make sure that the drip irrigation pipelines are in good condition. What's more, they have to resist extreme living conditions such as high temperature difference, strong sunlight, heavy dryness, and fight against the flowing sand. In the boundless desert, they endure the unbearable loneliness, repeat the boring work day after day, and insist on guarding the green channel. In order to maintain the smooth flow of the desert highway, the annual investment of only irrigation and maintenance of ecological forest is 20 million yuan. The loneliness and loneliness paid by those irrigation and maintenance workers is beyond quantification. The garbage discarded at will pollutes their hard work.

Luntai Minfeng desert highway

The Luntai Minfeng desert highway is from Luntai County to Minfeng County, and the branch line is from Tazhong to Qiemo county. In fact, it is an inverted Y-shaped line. In September 1995, it was completed and opened to traffic. It is the longest grade highway built in the mobile desert in the world, starting from Lunnan in the north to Minfeng County in the south of Taklimakan Desert, with a total length of 522 km.

Alar Hotan desert highway

Alar Hotan desert highway is alar Hotan highway, with a total length of 424 km. The highway is grade II, with an estimated total investment of 790 million yuan. The construction started in June 2005. This highway uses many technical research achievements of desert road construction in China. The completion of the second desert highway in Xinjiang in September 2007 will shorten the time from alar to Hotan by half, which is of great significance for speeding up the communication and exchange between the north and the south of Xinjiang and promoting the transformation of resource advantages to economic advantages in the south of Xinjiang.

Alar Tazhong desert highway

Alar Tazhong desert highway is the Tazhong desert highway from the 14th regiment of alar city to Qiemo County of the first division. In 2015, the road from alar to Tazhong well 45 was approved. The first project undertaken by Xinjiang production and Construction Corps in 2019

Chinese PinYin : Ta Li Mu Sha Mo Gong Lu