Urumqi, August 8 -- Xinjiang's "most beautiful highway" roadkeeper: Rush repairs on rainy nights leave the best time for tourists
Written by Gou Jipeng
A rain lasted from noon on August 8 until the next day. Early on the morning of the 7th, the reporter set off from Dushanzi and walked on the "most beautiful" highway in Xinjiang -- the Duku Highway. The car winds around on a winding mountain road, the peaks on both sides are hidden in the clouds, and although the weather is bad, the road is very clear.
"Due to the continuous rainfall, last night, there were many small debris and landslides in the section of the road under our control. For example, near the section of Laohukou Road that we just passed, there was debris, which was cleaned up in time before opening to traffic. Yang Mansheng, secretary of the party group and deputy director of the Dushanzi branch of the Kuitun Highway Administration, said that in order to leave the most beautiful scenery to tourists and the best time for tourists, workers carried out off-peak maintenance overnight, and would never cause congestion on the Duku Highway due to maintenance operations.
Maintenance workers clean up debris from the road during their patrols. Photo courtesy of Dushanzi Branch of Kuitun Highway Administration
The reporter learned that the maintenance section of the Duku Highway under the supervision of the Dushanzi Branch Bureau, from the starting point of Dushanzi K563 to K671 at the south entrance of the Hashlegen Tunnel, has a total length of 108 kilometers, with more than 500 curves, a 340-meter-long alpine tunnel, a 314-meter-long snow-proof corridor, a deep cliff in the "flying line" section, a "tiger mouth" with dangerous terrain, windblown snow and avalanches, and natural disasters such as landslides, debris, landslides, and mudslides, which have continued for many years. This section of the road was dubbed the "China Highway Geological Hazard Museum" by highway geology experts.
When the reporter drove to the Ulansadek maintenance station on the Duku Highway, road maintenance worker Zhai Faxin had just returned from dealing with the road conditions. "Our daily maintenance, emergency rescue and other work are all off-peak operations. In addition to the road patrol during the passage time, 6 am and 9 pm are the mandatory road times to patrol the road, environmental sanitation and rectification, and deal with dangerous situations. Zhai Faxin, who has worked on the Duku Highway for 40 years, is now a worker at the Ulansadek maintenance station. He told reporters that during the passage, the observation of debris flows, debris and other points was increased, especially in rain and snow, and dangerous situations were found and dealt with in time, and sometimes it was necessary to rush overnight to ensure that the road was smoothly opened to traffic in the morning.
At noon, the reporter arrived at the Chorma service area on the Duku Highway, and Tursunjiang Tulahun, head of the Chorma Maintenance Station of the Nileke Branch of the Ili Highway Administration, had just completed a mountain flood rescue mission. "July and August are the rainy season, and there may be thunder, lightning, rain three times a week, such weather, prone to mountain floods, mudslides, debris, landslides, etc. The daily traffic volume of Duku Highway is very large, and it must be handled in time to avoid affecting vehicle traffic. Tuersunjiang Tulahun said that this is not only to complete his own work, but also the responsibility and responsibility that a Tianshan highway person should have.
Tuersunjiang Tulahun (right) cleans up garbage on Duku Highway and carries out environmental sanitation improvement in the road area. Photo courtesy of Nilek Branch of Ili Highway Administration
The Duku Highway section under the control of the Nilek Highway Bureau is 49 kilometers long, with a total of 7 bridges and 108 culverts. The Chorma Conservation Station assumes the main task. In order to ensure that the Duku Highway is opened to traffic as scheduled, every spring season, Tursunjiang Tulahun will lead workers to carry out road inspections, ice breaking and snow removal operations. The roads are all buried by snow, sometimes avalanches are tens of meters high, the sky and the earth are chaotic, it is impossible to distinguish where is the sky, where is the road, where is the cliff, the manipulators can only rely on years of work experience and familiarity with the terrain to work by feeling, in case of dangerous road sections must be explored in front of the road on foot.
Three generations of the Tursunjan Tulahun family have been engaged in road maintenance. "My grandfather, mom and dad were road people. When I was 18, I worked as a repairman for a transportation company, and the salary was good. But my family wanted me to work in the highway system and stay with it ever since. Tursunjan Tulahun said. After a short exchange, Tursunjiang Tulahun went on the road again to carry out daily road patrols and road area environmental improvement work. "Deal with dangerous situations in time, pick up garbage when there is no danger, ensure the safe passage of tourists, and protect the beauty of the independent warehouse." Tursunjan Tulahun said.
Duku Highway is known as the "landscape road running through the backbone of the Tianshan Mountains", affected by natural factors such as snowfall and ice in winter, and generally implements traffic control from the beginning of November to May and June of the following year, and the closure period is as long as 8 months. Even during normal opening hours, water accumulation, landslides, and gravel slides caused by rain often occur, and in order to allow millions of tourists to pass normally, the roadkeepers who stick to this "net red highway" always rush to ensure smooth flow in the dead of night. (End)