Walking on some roads around the Urumqi High-speed Railway Area, you will find few manhole covers in the middle of the road and no utility poles along the roadside. Where have they all gone?
In fact, in our city, there are two maps: 'above ground' and 'underground'—what meets the eye are the city buildings on the ground; the invisible 'underground' is a huge world filled with various pipelines. Now, a transformation is taking place beneath our feet—the construction of utility tunnels is quietly changing Urumqi's underground 'lifelines,' giving the city both 'face' and 'substance.'
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, major projects have brought faster benefits to the people, and the path of benefiting the people has become wider. Now, the smooth launch of more than ten underground utility tunnel projects in Urumqi not only conveys the warmth of people's livelihood but also marks a shift in the mode of urban construction and development in Urumqi.
Roads No Longer Dug Up
Roads are often dug up—this is a traditional 'urban disease.'
The city's water supply and drainage, gas, heating, power, communications, lighting pipelines... if any one of them has a problem, some road sections will inevitably be disfigured, and if you are not careful, 'innocent' facilities will be damaged during construction.
Today, as the quality of urban development is increasingly put on the agenda, shiny above-ground buildings are no longer the sole criterion for urbanization quality. On the contrary, the development and utilization of underground 'urban space' is attracting more and more attention.
The total length of various underground pipelines in the capital is over 6,000 kilometers. Some underground pipelines are 'in service' beyond their design life, and together with pipelines from annual municipal construction and various self-built pipelines of units, the urban underground pipeline network is complex.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has begun to brew an 'underground pipeline revolution,' and utility tunnel construction has received strong policy support and promotion. The State Council and relevant departments have intensively released policy benefits for underground utility tunnel construction.
At a critical period of urban social transformation, in response to the 'shortcomings' in municipal construction, Urumqi has been determined to reform and innovate, launching pilot projects for underground utility tunnels and sponge city construction, exploring urban transformation and scientific development.
Urumqi's first underground utility tunnel project—the Xuanwu Lake Road Utility Tunnel—was completed in 2016. With a length of 2.4 kilometers, it will become a 'century project' underground. Manhole covers on this road section can be reduced by 80%, and the boreholes necessary for maintenance are designed in green belts and sidewalks, leaving the road surface smooth and unobstructed.
Here, pipelines 'live' together every day but cannot casually 'visit' each other. For example, power conduits, due to higher safety requirements, need to be placed separately, so the utility tunnel is divided into a comprehensive compartment and a power compartment. Figuratively speaking, the underground utility tunnel places various municipal pipelines currently buried directly underground into a common 'house,' giving them safer protection.
Resident Wu Xinyu said: 'In some American movies, vehicles can drive through underground pipelines. I never expected we would soon have them here too.'
Urumqi to Enter the 'Utility Tunnel Era'
'Face' is the city's appearance, while 'substance' is the city's conscience. Only by building a solid 'substance' can we support the 'face'—this is a century-long plan.
Underground, 'all pipelines enter the tunnel'; above ground, a new six-lane elevated road in both directions will be built, upgrading the Chengbei Main Road into an urban expressway and becoming the second express route to the airport... As the east-west traffic artery of the capital, the Chengbei Main Road will undergo a three-dimensional renovation this year, upgrading both 'substance and face.'
Underground first, then above ground. This time, the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have coordinated the planning of the underground and above-ground parts of the Chengbei Main Road and built them at one time to avoid repeated investment and repeated road excavation in the future. The Chengbei Main Road Utility Tunnel runs 9.1 kilometers in total.
On July 10, at the project department of the third bid section of the Chengbei Main Road Utility Tunnel of Xinjiang Communications Construction, the foundation pit was being excavated. Wang Yong, deputy manager of the project department, said that because it is an underground utility tunnel project, the excavation volume is relatively large, with a depth of up to 8 meters. The earthwork excavation volume requires 300,000 cubic meters; a truck can carry about 15 cubic meters, so it would take 20,000 truckloads.
The main body width of the utility tunnel cross-section is 17.1 meters, and the total height is 4.7 meters. At that time, maintenance and renovation of water supply pipelines and communication lines will not require digging up the road; it will only be necessary to put the pipes and lines used into the utility tunnel from the feeding port, and construction workers can then go down underground from the entrance to work.
Li Fujun, deputy production manager of the project department of the fourth bid section of the Chengbei Main Road Utility Tunnel Project of Xinjiang Weitai Development and Construction (Group) Co., Ltd., said that the construction trench is 2.5 kilometers long, 8 meters deep, and 25 meters wide.
The Aiding Lake Road Utility Tunnel Project this year also uniformly renovates the underground and above-ground parts, with underground first and then above ground. Once completed, the utility tunnel can form a ring-shaped utility tunnel system with the surrounding planned Suzhou Road-Ronghe Road-Jinggangshan West Street (Industrial Avenue) utility tunnels, facilitating the full play of the utility tunnel system.
Only when utility tunnels form a network and clusters can they produce scale effects. This year, Urumqi will build 10 municipal-level underground utility tunnels and continue the construction of 3 underground utility tunnels, gradually opening up the underground 'main artery' of the Chengbei area. These are: Chengbei Main Road (Central Asia Avenue-Suzhou Road), Chengbei Main Road (Central Asia Avenue-Hetan Road), Chengbei Main Road East Extension (Qidaowan Road-East Second Ring Road), Aiding Lake Road (Industrial Avenue-Suzhou Road), Yubin Road, Shaping Road, Kashgar Road (Jingjiang Road-Qidaowan Road), and the Ganquanbao Economic Development Zone utility tunnel pilot project—10 projects with a total length of nearly 57 kilometers. In addition, there are 3 continued projects: Suzhou Road West Extension (Ziyang Lake Road-Weixing Road), Weixing Road (Xishan Road-Jingyi Road), and Xinyi Road West Extension (Weixing Road-Qingjian Road) utility tunnels, with a total length of 9 kilometers. The construction periods range from 1 to 3 years.
The capital will carry out underground utility tunnel construction in stages according to the special plan for utility tunnels and urban road construction, focusing on urban areas such as the High-speed Railway Area, Convention and Exhibition Area, and Chengbei Area, as well as major road intersections and junctions with subways and overpasses, and gradually promote the construction and application of utility tunnels in conjunction with old city renovation.
For example, the Chengbei Main Road Utility Tunnel is the main channel connecting the High-speed Railway Area utility tunnel and the Chengbei New Area utility tunnel. It will also become a trunk utility tunnel connecting Urumqi's utility tunnel regional system and will play an important role in exerting the overall function of the city's utility tunnel system.
The development and construction of underground utility tunnels require large investment and high costs, and many people call it a project of lasting importance. As netizen 'Yilu Suixing' said, city managers investing real money in the 'invisible' underground is a pragmatic, long-term, and scientific governing philosophy.
The warmth of people's livelihood supports the height of development. In the future, as a batch of utility tunnels are completed and put into use, Urumqi will enter the 'Utility Tunnel Era.'
Excavating Urban Space, Opening Up the Capital's Future
Chengbei Main Road Utility Tunnel, Weixing Road Utility Tunnel, Xinyi Road Utility Tunnel... Every time someone asks me what project I am covering, my answer is basically utility tunnels.
Compared with the elevated and expressway projects concentrated in previous years, Urumqi began to concentrate on utility tunnel projects this year.
There are many elements in urban construction and development, among which the underground utility tunnel can be called an invisible and extremely important 'lifeline.' It not only carries the supply and circulation of essential resources such as water, electricity, gas, heating, and communications for the city, but also determines the scale and pattern of the city's future development.
Although underground utility tunnels are still a new term in Urumqi, they have a history of more than a hundred years in some Western developed countries.
The capital also faces urgent problems in the construction of underground utility tunnels. Some pipeline units believe that entering the tunnel will increase construction costs, so their willingness to enter is not strong. Despite national policy support, in reality, due to the complex relationships among various pipeline stakeholders, 'all pipelines entering the tunnel' may be difficult.
The development of underground space, especially deep space, is still a technically challenging task. We should work together, seize opportunities, meet challenges, and expand the city's future.