Recently, the last 40-meter T-beam of Ranqing River Bridge No. 1 on the Jiuma Expressway, a project of Shudao Group's Tibetan Plateau Expressway Company, was safely erected in place, marking the completion of erection of the first bridge on the entire Jiuma Expressway, 15 days ahead of schedule.

Regarding T-beam production at the Shenzuo Ecological Restoration Base of the Jiuma Expressway, the project has carried out unique innovative exploration. At the C1 Smart Beam Yard near the Duoguo Service Area, workers are busy with production. The beam yard is divided into Zones A, B and C, covering an area of 55 mu. To reduce damage to the environment, the C1 Smart Beam Yard was sited along the subgrade section K13+900~K17+820. Zhang Huan, manager of the C1 General Contracting Department of the Jiuma Expressway under Shudao Group's Sichuan Road & Bridge, introduced: "We adopted fully hydraulic molds, using an intelligent module control system to control the opening and closing of the formwork. After pouring is completed, the base's rollers transport it to the next process, avoiding hoisting."

It is understood that the C1 Smart Beam Yard has a total of 5,286 beam slabs to prefabricate, with 18 mobile production lines planned, and a prefabrication period of 12 months. Beam slab prefabrication adopts intelligent assembly-line production, achieving intelligent processing and tying of rebar, intelligent mold closing and demolding, intelligent pouring and vibration, intelligent steam curing and maintenance, and intelligent tensioning and grouting. T-beam production takes about 18 hours from mold closing to demolding. Compared with traditional processes, each T-beam can save an average of 6 hours, achieving the goals of replacing workers with machinery and reducing personnel through automation, with high product quality, high production efficiency and high safety performance. The G0615 Jiuzhi (Sichuan-Qinghai border) to Ma'erkang section expressway is an important component of the G0615 Delingha–Ma'erkang line, a connecting line of the G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway in the National Expressway Network Plan (2013-2030). It is a major corridor linking the northwest and southwest directions of the national expressway network, and also an important component of the Chengdu–Ma'erkang–Qinghai radial line in the "1688 Network" of the Sichuan Provincial Expressway Network (2014-2030). The project is invested in and constructed by Shudao Group, connecting north to the already-built Hua(shixia)–Jiu(zhi) Expressway and south to the Wen(chuan)–Ma(erkang) Expressway. It has a total length of 219 kilometers, a bridge-tunnel ratio of 42%, an estimated total investment of 30.2 billion yuan, and a planned construction period of 5 years.

In July on the western Sichuan plateau, the natural scenery along the route is unique and beautiful, but building an expressway on the plateau faces many challenges. First, high altitude and severe cold. The entire Jiuma Expressway lies at an altitude above 3,000 meters, of which the 3,000–3,500 meter section is 121 kilometers long, accounting for 55% of the total; the 3,500–4,000 meter section is 98 kilometers long, accounting for 45%. The average annual temperature along the route is 1.4°C, with an extreme minimum temperature of -36°C, and the temperature difference between day and night can reach 28.4°C, with four seasons visible in a single day. Severely affected by the interwoven harsh climates of rain, snow, ice, fog and wind, the climatic conditions are harsh, and the average annual effective construction period is only about 6 months. A person in charge of the project told reporters that because many workers could not adapt to working in the plateau climate, many left their posts, and the on-site workers have been replaced five or six times. Second, the ecology is fragile. The Jiuma Expressway corridor passes through important ecologically sensitive areas such as Suomo River Forest Park, Emetang Flower Sea Scenic Area, Duomeilinka National Wetland Park and Lianbaoyeze Scenic Area, with many environmental sensitive points and a complex and fragile ecology. Project implementation faces enormous ecological and environmental tests, and the tasks of environmental protection and soil and water conservation in project construction are extremely arduous.

Liu Gen, head of the Shenzuo Representative Office of the Jiuma Expressway under Shudao Group's Tibetan Plateau Expressway Company, introduced: "We have carried out scientific maintenance of the meadows and promptly re-laid and utilized them according to construction progress. For closed transverse access roads, we carry out ecological restoration by methods such as broadcasting grass seeds. We actively promote and apply new plant fiber technology. For the open land within the red line where the lower structure of bridges along the entire line has been completed, ecological restoration is being accelerated." The Jiuma Expressway is 219 kilometers long, with bridges and tunnels accounting for nearly half of the route length, including 6 extra-long tunnels of more than 3 kilometers and 10 bridges with a single span of more than 150 meters or a total length of more than 1,000 meters, representing a huge project scale. Because the project is located in the transitional edge zone from the Sichuan Basin to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the geology is extremely complex and project implementation is difficult. The surrounding rock of most tunnels is soft, with serious water inrush and mudburst problems and the possibility of large deformation. Some tunnel exits and entrances are connected by extra-long bridges across deep gullies, making construction difficult. There are major challenges such as plateau frozen-thaw soil, concrete durability and utilization of tunnel spoil. At the same time, the regional road network structure is not yet complete, especially lacking high-grade highway networks, and disaster resistance and relief capacity are weak.

The successful erection of Ranqing River Bridge No. 1 has laid a good foundation for the next step of bridge deck system construction on the Jiuma Expressway and strongly promoted construction progress. As of the end of July, the Jiuma Expressway had completed an investment of 3.337 billion yuan this year, accounting for 49.8% of the annual target of 6.7 billion yuan; temporary works were 100% complete, subgrade works 46%, bridge works 26%, and tunnel works 22%. Next, all builders of the Jiuma Expressway will take this as an opportunity to carefully organize and comprehensively accelerate project construction, striving to achieve the 2021 goal of basically forming the 50-kilometer section from the Sichuan-Qinghai border to Aba County. After the Jiuma Expressway is completed and opened to traffic, it will take only 5.5 hours from the Chengdu Ring Expressway to the Sichuan-Qinghai provincial border, shortening the current time by one third. It will greatly improve transportation conditions in Aba Prefecture, strongly serve the national "Belt and Road" strategy and the Western Development Strategy, promote long-term stability and security in Tibetan-inhabited areas, and advance rural revitalization in ethnic minority areas.