We headed through reasonably heavy traffic to the south west of the city, crossed the Lhasa River and took Century Road leading to the dual carriageway highway serving the airport. A railway appeared on our left which was apparently the extension of the railway to the west beyond Lhasa. Its construction was similar to the line I travelled on – embankments, bridges and tunnels. Construction was clearly well-advanced here with track laid. I saw one Engineering train hauled by a blue diesel electric locomotive.
The dual carriageway came to an end and we continued on a single carriageway with a line down the middle which some drivers didn't seem to notice. Apparently, this is the G318 road which runs (or will run) from Shanghai to Nepal. There were milestones, sorry, kilometre markers every kilometre and, since the numbers start at Shanghai, numbers were already in the four thousands. After a while, we came to a sudden stop with vehicles heading in our direction all over the road and traffic coming the other way getting through only with difficulty.
From the apparent chaos, I assumed it was an accident but, no, it was a traffic checkpoint. Our guide took the driver's credentials to the office and returned after a few minutes with a piece of paper. I didn't really get to the bottom of it but, most importantly, the paper showed our time leaving the checkpoint. We were then to report to the next checkpoint in not less than an hour.
Congestion at a traffic checkpoint. The saluting policeman in the background is a dummy.
The new railway was still alongside and we passed a depot with two large portal cranes. It looked as if they were involved in loading prefabricated sections of concrete-sleepered track onto Work Trains or, possibly, actually being used to assemble the track 'panels'.
The river valley we were travelling through became narrower and we lost the new railway for a while. It re-appeared high above us on the right, emerging from a tunnel. We were now travelling with a turbulent river on our left and a practically vertical rock wall on our right. This section was not without its problems as there had been a number of rock falls onto our road. A gang of men with long shovels were attempting to clear the rock away. Reluctant to slow down, our driver was swerving from side to side to find the clearest section of the carriageway.
The logistical problems in building a new railway in such a mountainous, inhospitable area were becoming clear. There were frequent Work Camps, from which temporary construction roads fanned out to reach various Work Sites. The larger Camps could be spotted by the array of storage silos for cement and other materials. Camp walls, tunnel mouths and bridges often had some sort of exhortation in large, red Chinese characters. After passing one such camp near a tunnel mouth, the new railway crossed the road on an incomplete long-span bridge. The railway was then to continue on a viaduct of a large number of 'standard' concrete spans but only the tall, concrete bridge piers had been completed, suggesting the relentless march of an army across the countryside.
The new railway to Shigatse under construction.
Further on, the new railway was lost from sight as it scrabbled across loose scree. Then, a tunnel mouth would appear, confirming where the line would be when finished. At another work camp, I saw a row of ready-mixed concrete lorries parked up. They clearly provide a shuttle service from the work camp to each of the work sites where concrete is required, using the temporary construction roads I'd seen earlier. Putting aside political considerations, I couldn't avoid being impressed with the organisation which could tackle such a job.
We passed a broad concrete arch road bridge which I at first thought was a new road bridge. It became clear that it was the bridge which formerly carried the road we were on undergoing major repairs, because we plunged onto a very temporary road of loose roadstone and approached the river bank a few hundred yards past the arch bridge where a 'Bailey Bridge' had been set-up. We crossed the river and made a fairly terrifying passage on another stretch of loose roadstone to join the 'Old Road' next to the arch bridge. The tarmac road wasn't always very good, but it was better than the loose roadstone!
The concrete arch road bridge under repair, forcing traffic to cross the river on a temporary Bailey Bridge.
We passed kilometre marker 4759 shortly before approaching a river crossing for the new railway. Two tall piers set in the river carried two 'half arches' balancing one another, so that each pier looked like a letter 'T'. In the middle of the river, the two 'half arches' joined to form a complete arch. The other two 'half arches' rested on substantial piers on either bank. There were then a series of 'normal' bridge piers which, once fitted with 'standard' pre-cast bridge sections, would form the 'approach spans' on either side of the river. Adjacent to each of the four main bridge piers there was a yellow-painted tower crane, essential to making this bridge-building a possibility.
Further on, we passed another construction site where a single-arch concrete bridge was being built over the river, apparently for a road. The method of construction here used an 'aerial ropeway'. On our side of the river, a massive 'A' Frame had been erected. A number of suspension cables were then laid to the other side of the river where, I think, they were terminated in a massive concrete block. Two 'trollies' ran on the suspension cables, capable of being hauled back and forth across the bridge under construction. Finally, each trolley carried a hook for lifting and lowering loads. Multi-sheave pulleys were in use because of the weight of the concrete bridge sections which were being dealt with.
Later, the new railway crossed onto our (right) side of the river then we crossed to the left. I could see why the road builders had chosen the left bank – on the right bank a steep mountainside, full of loose rock, came down to the water's edge. But the railway builders had no option but to scrabble a route through a series of tunnels and bridges. At one point, the railway had built a tall bridge pier carrying two 'half arches' forming a 'T'. But in this case, the ends of the 'half arches' rested on either side of a deep ravine. The railway popped out of a tunnel on one side of the ravine, crossed the 'T' and immediately entered a tunnel on the other side of the ravine.
With the new railway running high on the mountain side, some of the construction roads giving access to the work sites looked pretty 'hairy'. Since our road was being used to serve all the main work sites (we saw plenty of road cement tankers!) in at least a couple of places, the railway builders had needed to build their own river bridges to link Work Camps up on the mountain on the right with our road on the left.
We stopped for a rest for a few minutes at a road junction where the side road led to the Chamchin Monastery. The peace of the remote spot was frequently interrupted by the air horns of the 8- 12- and 16-wheeler lorries rushing past.
The side road leading to the Chamchin Monastery.
My Pictures
Lhasa - Shigatse by Road
[Pictures inserted and link to pictures added 22-Aug-2013].
