TECHNICAL ISSUES ENCOUNTERED IN THE DESIGN ANDCONSTRUCTION OF EXPRESSWAYS IN HILLY TERRAIN IN SHANXIPROVINCE, P.R. CHINA

摘要

To meet the dramatically increased demands on surface transportation system, expresswaynetwork in China has experienced a rapid expansion in recent years. Shanxi province, located in thecentral part of China, has constructed more than 1,200 km of new expressways from zero km in 1992. Theexpressway design and construction has faced great challenges since Shanxi has hilly and mountainousterrain and numerous rivers from two large river systems. The heavy truck haul of raw coal consists themajor portion of truck traffic on these highways, which requires careful geometric and pavement structuredesign. Highway tunnels and large bridges are encouraged to achieve geometric standards and to reduceenvironmental impacts. This paper briefly introduced the development of expressways in Shanxi. Somemajor technical issues encountered are then discussed. These issues include large highway tunnelconstruction and treatments of abandoned coal mining sections. Some problems related to expresswayoperation and administration are also discussed.