Development of highway constructing technology in the permafrost region on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Highway passes through the Qinghai-Tibet plateau hinterland from north to south, from Kunlun Mountain to Tanggula Mountain. The average altitude is above 4500 m and permafrost covers more than 700 km length of area with high elevation and high temperature. The climate of the plateau is capricious and the surroundings along the road are bad, where the mean annual atmosphere temperature is −2 to −7°C and the oxygen content is inadequate, which is less than 50% of the sea level, while the solar radiation is higher than 3600 kJ/m2. The basic characteristics of the plateau surroundings are the permafrost, coldness with litter oxygen, and fragile ecosystem. As the air temperature warms all over the world, the permafrost on the plateau responds quickly. The average temperature of permafrost is up by 0.2–0.3°C in recent 20 years, and the island-permafrost dwindles with a high rate, and the high temperature permafrost degrades quickly, and the temperature of the low temperature permafrost increases remarkably. These gradually cause the highway engineering diseases in the permafrost region. The Qinghai-Tibet highway has experienced much maintenance and rebuilding for 50 years after it was built, and the continual observation and investigation have been made for more than 30 years. This road is the longest test engineering for permafrost research work in China. It is no doubt that it is also the greatest engineering project in plateau permafrost region. The Ministry of Communication in China initiated the research project “Research on a series of technologies for highway constructing in the permafrost regions” in 2002, which was to meet the challenges from the effect of climatic warming on the permafrost. The project systematically studied the permafrost engineering theories, methods for survey and design, engineering stabilization measures, preventing of the road disasters and maintaining, environment protection and the techniques to prolong the road engineering life in the cold surroundings with high altitude and less oxygen. This article describes a series of technologies for highway constructing according to the special surroundings in the plateau, including some innovative achievements and the research and development of permafrost engineering.