As a plateau railway with the highest altitude & the longest line in the world, Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a landmark project in China for its implementation of the western development drive. China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. won over the construction tasks of Golmud-Lhasa Section (95km) & Tuotuohe Test Section. Based on the construction goals of "high starting point, high quality, high standard & first-class plateau railway", it conquered the three world difficulties, namely, severe cold & oxygen deficit, permafrost as well as eco-environmental protection. The test section of the full line was started within 82 days. Its 63 quality sample projects ranked the first among the 23 offline participating companies. Changjiangyuan Super Major Bridge, 1,389.6m long in total, allowed China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. to set its monument at the source of three rivers (Yangtze River, Yellow River & Lantsang River) at 4,600m. Hoh Xil-Tuotuohe Section won the Luban Prize for Construction Project of China, with its key technologies winning the National Scientific & Technological Progress Grand Prize once & Shanxi Provincial Scientific & Technological Progress Award twice.

1. Tuotuohe Test Section.

Tuotuohe Test Section is located in the transitional zone of permafrost & great river tabetisol area of Tuotuo River in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which belongs to island discontinuous permafrost. The construction of the subgrade for this section commenced on September 5, 2001 & completed on October 25, 2001. Native grass transplantation commenced on May 28, 2002 & completed at the end of June 2002. It also tested & studied the slope protection for transplanting native grass, which ensured project quality, provided the full-line construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway with important technical parameters & methods, & won the Luban Prize for Construction Project of China.

2. Bridge construction technology in permafrost & plateau regions. 

Changjiangyuan Super Major Bridge, undertaken by China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd., is located in ice & snow climate area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, while the bridge formation is in great river tabetisol area with local characteristics of island frozen soil. Therefore, in order to protect the plateau permafrost from major disturbances & the ecological environment is not affected & to ensure construction quality, safety & duration, it researched & developed the bored pile expansion drilling bit which overcomes frozen-heave force, a new technology for quick excavation by rotary drilling rig, the one-time pouring construction technology of double heat reserving & preservation concrete pumping for piers as well as concrete design & construction technology in cold plateau areas, which ensured the safe, quality & efficient completion of Changjiangyuan Super Major Bridge, solved the problem of bridge construction in permafrost regions, & won the second prize of Shanxi Scientific & Technological Progress in 2005, allowing China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. to establish the monument at the source of three rivers at 4,600m.

3. Development & Application Technology of Plateau Oxygen Generation Station

China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. participated in the development & application of Tuotuohe Oxygen Generation Station of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Under such harsh natural conditions as severe cold, low pressure & oxygen shortage at the altitude of 5,000m, the initially developed oxygen generation technology involving pressure adsorption & pressure swing adsorption (directly desorbing low plateau pressure) was used to build Tuotuohe Oxygen Generation Station which was of over 30m3/h oxygen production & over 92% oxygen density. Its technical specifications fully complied with the standards of the pharmaceutical industry at that time, & the technology reached the international advanced level. After the oxygen generation station was put in, the construction efficiency increased by 20%, while the incidence rate in the plateau population decreased by 44.1%. The oxygen generation station achieved groundbreaking results & solved problems of severe cold & oxygen deficit. It has extensive application prospects in the cold & oxygen-deficient areas.

4. Permafrost Treatment Technology

As the world's highest mega-topography & geomorphology unit. The climate is cold, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has cold climate & a freezing period as long as 7-8 months. Permafrost is one of the three major technical problems for construction. China Railway No.3 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. had scientific research cooperation with the companies participating in the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway & solved the technical problem of permafrost. In embankment construction, for example, they overcame subgrade construction difficulties by selecting quality fillers, taking reinforcement measures for permafrost embankment, widening embankment, using air-cooled rubble embankment, heating bars as well as other technologies & measures.

5. Construction Technology for Ventilated Rubble Embankment in Plateau Permafrost Regions

In 2002, applied to the construction of the ventilated rubble embankment of the Eighth Section DK1191+750-DK1199+000 of Golmud-Lhasa Section of Qinghai-Tibet Railway, this key technology was appraised by Shanxi Provincial Construction Committee & reached the domestic leading level. When pouring & filling rubbles, the Project Department changed the traditional mechanical support method of using bulldozers & dump trucks but chose excavators & dump trucks for such construction. Excavators excavated the rubbles upwards, piled them up to the design thickness (1.0-1.2m) promptly, & reserved a certain amount of compaction settlement in a timely manner. With the piling of rubbles, the operation surface advanced forward & excavators moved forward in a timely manner. When the rubble layer reached 200m, an Ingersoll-Rand 50T heavy-duty roller was used to perform strong vibratory compaction on the rubble layer to meet the required degree of compaction. Good economic benefits were gained due to low construction costs.