At 7:50am on September 6, a landslide occurred at the entrance of the Pingli Tunnel. This tunnel was located at 600 KM mark on the Ankang to Pingli Freeway. Approximately 10,000 cubic meters of debris quickly buried the tunnel entrance, causing two-way traffic disruption.
The freeway from Ankang City to Pingli County in Shaanxi Province has a total length of 61 kilometers with a two-way 4-lane design. Construction started in September 2011, and the freeway was opened to traffic in November 2015. The total construction volume of this freeway is: over 11 million cubic meters of roadbed earthwork, 386,000 cubic meters of protective drainage, 90 bridges with a total length of 22 km, 10 tunnels with a total length of 13km, and bridges and tunnels account for 57% of the total length of the route. Such a large-scale project was completed and opened to traffic in only 4 years, so the construction speed is astounding.
However, less than 6 years after it was opened to traffic, a collapse occurred, and the tunnel entrance was buried.
According to official media reports, at about 5 p.m. on September 7, a landslide occurred at the entrance of the Junjiaping Tunnel at the 66 KM mark in the direction of Baoxia to Yishui freeway, blocking the roadway. Staff quickly organized repair and clean-up of the road.
On September 3, a landslide occurred near a tunnel under construction on the freeway from Daguan County to Yongshan County, Zhaotong, Yunnan Province. The worker’s dormitories and cars were instantly buried by rocks and mud. The tunnel entrance is also partially buried.
According to the information from the Zhaotong Highway Administration Department of Yunnan Province, at 10:30pm on September 7, a landslide occurred on the G247 Highway in Yanjin County, causing the road to be blocked in both directions. The debris amounted to about 15,000 cubic meters; 100 people and 40 vehicles were stranded. Officials said no casualties were found.
There were five landslides in six days. What is the reason behind this?
Comprehensive analysis of professional literature suggests that the frequent occurrence of landslides on freeways is the result of a combination of factors, mainly: construction quality, geotechnical investigation, design problems, construction companies trading safety for profit, as well as natural factors such as geological conditions and rainfall.
Construction quality is one of the important factors leading to landslides, and the quality of construction personnel plays an important role.
There are often problems in the geotechnical investigation and design.
For a long time, the concept of "no landslides, no profit" has existed in construction companies. Some construction companies and construction personnel even look forward to landslides, thereby increasing the engineering volume or design changes to bring more profits.
Geological conditions are mainly related to rock and soil properties, their structure, and groundwater activities.
These landslides were all related to the continuous rainfall in the area.
Of course, there are still many accidents of landslides and tunnel collapses in China, which is a long-existing and common phenomenon. Landslides are usually counted as natural disasters, yet in many cases, they could be avoided. However, due to the interests of many parties involved, these avoidable disasters are considered to have happened "naturally".
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