China has opened the world's longest tunnel with a length of more than 22 km.

In China, in the northwest of the country, traffic officially opened through the Tianshan Shengli automobile tunnel on the G0711 expressway, which is more than 22 km long. This was reported on December 26 by the Xinhua news agency.

According to the newspaper, the construction in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has become the longest expressway tunnel in the world. A trip along it will reduce the travel time through the highlands from several hours to 20 minutes.

The maximum depth of the tunnel reaches 1.1 km, and the underground highway, passing through the Tianshan Mountains, crosses 16 fault zones. The G0711 Urumqi–Yulee expressway, which was opened on the same day, is more than 324 km long and connects cities in the north and south of Xinjiang. It took five years to build, and investments in the project totaled 46.7 billion yuan ($6.63 billion).

What will the construction of a tunnel through the Bering Strait change? Analysis

On November 6, Andrey Nikitin, Head of the Russian Ministry of Transport, spoke about the ministry's key areas of work related to the development of international transport corridors to enter fast-growing markets, as well as strengthening Russia's role as a logistics bridge between East and West. He noted that one of the important directions is the development of the Europe–Western China corridor.

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