June 25 (Xinhua) — Wu Chungeng, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport, said on June 25 that the Daxing Airport Expressway and the middle section of the Daxing Airport North Line Expressway, both connecting to the new Beijing airport, have basically been completed. The main line of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, which will serve the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, will also be completed and opened to traffic by the end of this year. Wu made the remarks at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on June 25.
It is also learned that the West Tower of Beijing Daxing International Airport passed completion acceptance on June 25 and was delivered for use as a whole. Known as the “Eye of the Phoenix,” the West Tower will in the future handle more than 70% of aircraft takeoff and landing control tasks at Beijing Daxing International Airport. The West Tower is a landmark building of Beijing Daxing International Airport, standing 70.3 meters tall with a floor area of 2,000 square meters. It has 20 above-ground floors and one underground floor, and houses a command center, control rooms, an inspection ring, a briefing room, equipment rooms, UPS rooms and more.
The West Tower project features a number of design and construction highlights. The 360-degree circular window of the round command room at the top is assembled from 12 modular glass units, each weighing 1.24 tons. The glass is semi-tempered three-layer laminated special glass, featuring high strength, good flatness and resistance to self-explosion or overall shattering. In addition, the outer curtain wall of the West Tower includes eight types of craftsmanship, such as vertical exposed-frame and horizontal hidden-frame glass curtain walls and aluminum veneer curtain walls. Because the curtain wall has a complex shape and heavy structural materials, installation precision requirements are very high. Once the fine and delicate steel reinforcement skeleton was completed, the West Tower took shape like an exquisite filigree craftwork.