Wang Shuangjie： Climbing ＂Highway Everest＂ with Hope

CCTV News:On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there is an unusual expressway, which runs more than 680 kilometers from Gonghe County in Hainan Prefecture of Qinghai Province to Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. This highway not only undertakes the task of continuously transporting mainland materials to Tibetan areas, but also is the most convenient route in go on road trip.

It is called Gongyu Expressway, and the hard work of several generations has condensed behind it. What kind of people broke through the forbidden area of human engineering and built this "heavenly road"? Wang Shuangjie, the main survey designer of this highway, gave the answer.

Wang Shuangjie (middle) leads the team to investigate the frozen soil on the plateau.

Harvest precious life wealth on the vast plateau.　

In 1979, 17-year-old Wang Shuangjie was admitted to Xi ‘an Highway College (now Chang ‘an University Highway College). Because he dreamed of becoming a teacher since he was a child, the first thing Wang Shuangjie did after entering school was to join several classmates to find a school to change majors. The old headmaster’s words dispelled his thoughts: "Classmates, our country’s transportation infrastructure is backward. In the past 30 years, it has been in the east of the river and in the west of the river. Foreign cars have entered the family, and the traffic is so developed that our country can’t be in that state forever. The day when our national car entered the family is the day when our national highway developed to a high level. You can study with peace of mind and you can use it. "

In July 1983, after graduation, Wang Shuangjie was assigned to work in the First Highway Survey and Design Institute of the Ministry of Communications. In the spring of the following year, he was appointed by the Ministry of Communications to go to Karakorum Mountain to conduct preliminary survey, design and construction technical guidance for a frontier highway.

"At that time, the altitude of this highway was about 4,700 meters, and there was permafrost on it, which made me really realize the environment of the plateau." Although Wang Shuangjie had prepared himself psychologically before this, the real situation in front of him still made him unexpected.

The station is short of water and electricity, and it is windy, rainy and snowy, and hails. During the day, I have to stop and rest every few steps when carrying equipment, and I have a headache and chest tightness at night, making it difficult to sleep … … The harsh environment and severe altitude sickness made Wang Shuangjie almost give up several times.

In the past 10 months on the plateau, Wang Shuangjie’s mother, who was far away from her hometown in Anhui, fell ill and passed away. It was more than a month after he received the telegram. The superior ordered that the road must be opened before the snow closed the mountain, and Wang Shuangjie was the only technical backbone appointed by the local ministries and could not leave easily. In the spring of the following year, when Wang Shuangjie rushed home, the grass was green on his mother’s grave.

Gongyu Expressway is the first expressway crossing the permafrost region in the Three Rivers source area, and it is also the scientific research demonstration and supporting project of the expressway. Stepping on the Gongyu Expressway, Wang Shuangjie’s inner pride is self-evident.

Stick to the forbidden area of life and continue the fire of scientific research on plateau frozen soil

The Qinghai-Tibet Highway starts from Xining City, Qinghai Province in the east and reaches Lhasa City, Tibet in the west. It is the asphalt highway with the highest altitude and the longest route in the world. It is also the best and safest highway leading to Tibet at present, with a total length of nearly 2,000 kilometers. This highway embodies the efforts of generations including Wang Shuangjie, and is also the foundation for building the Gongyu Expressway.

In 1950s, General Mu Shengzhong, an older revolutionary, led the troops to build the Qinghai-Tibet Highway through hardships. Since then, this highway has undertaken more than 85% of the passenger transport tasks in Tibet, and the frozen soil has melted and the road surface collapsed due to overload.

In the 1970s, the state decided to lay asphalt pavement for the entire Qinghai-Tibet Highway. In 1985, after the completion of the project, new problems followed. Due to the serious heat absorption of asphalt pavement, permafrost melts rapidly and collapses badly, so the Ministry of Communications has organized four studies on the treatment of Qinghai-Tibet highway diseases before and after.

In 2001, Wang Shuangjie became the project leader of the complete set of technology research for highway construction in permafrost regions. This is a project in which the Ministry of Communications has invested the most research funds and researchers in history. During the critical seven years from 2001 to 2008, Wang Shuangjie made dozens of trips between permafrost observation stations on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in Xi ‘an, and made one major breakthrough after another in the field of engineering construction technology in permafrost areas. In 2008, with years of observation data and exploration and innovation, the construction and maintenance technology of Qinghai-Tibet Highway in permafrost hosted by Wang Shuangjie won the first prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award.

"Our first team leader died very early because of stomach problems, and altitude hypoxia can also cause cardiovascular damage; Our second team leader left because of respiratory and cardiopulmonary problems. " Colleagues around us have fallen down one by one, the older generation of frozen soil research experts are about to retire, and the new generation of researchers have not kept up. The research results on frozen soil for many years have been broken, and the whole industry will face the dilemma of green and yellow. As a leader in the new generation of frozen soil research, Wang Shuangjie feels that he should not only stick to it, but also "stabilize" a group of talents.

In 2000, the country began the strategy of developing the western region, which gave great support and care to the western transportation. This group of frozen soil researchers led by Wang Shuangjie finally ushered in the opportunity to display their talents. What they have to face is still a difficult environment. However, compared with decades ago, various hardware facilities and personnel have made great improvement and progress.

When all the fame and aura have long been submerged in the daily busyness, Wang Shuangjie dare not forget the encouragement of the old headmaster. In a project to overcome difficulties, how precious faith is, how important encouragement is. He often tells the young people in the team: "You should persist in a job, and hope will always be left to those who have hope."