China Starts the World’s Hardest “Sky-High Road” Project: Challenges and Countermeasures for Sichuan-Tibet Railway
Diagrammatic maps related to the Sichuan-Tibet railway in China
In China, a new “epic project” named the Sichuan-Tibet railway linking Chengdu and Lhasa is in the construction phase. This 1,592-km-long railway passes through the western Sichuan basin, subsequently climbing 5,000 m and running across the “roof of the world” Tibet plateau, which is dubbed the “Sky-High Road” (Figure 1).1 Over the past decades, the region along the Sichuan-Tibet railway was recognized as the “forbidden zone” for railway projects, resulting from the world's most remarkable topographic relief, the most active tectonic movement, the most numerous mountain hazards, and the most vulnerable ecological environment.
