Wednesday August 7, 2019 BIZIND
B
4-5
R
ainy season is relatively cool in
late July for the Namor District of
Oudomxay Province, some 400
kilometers north of the Lao capital Vien-
tiane, while at the Ban Konlouang Tunnel
construction site inside the mountains
there, Chinese workers are sweating.
The 9,020-meter Ban Konlouang Tun-
nel is the second-longest tunnel along
the China-Laos railway in northern Laos,
and is currently being constructed by
China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group
(CREC-5).
With harsh geological conditions in-
cluding faults, underground rivers, water
inrush and mud, the tunnel construction
site is known as the “Geological Mu-
seum”.
The construction has been listed as a
key bottleneck of the railway project.
At the site, heat waves erupt from the
depths of the tunnel, hitting incomers as
they approach. Even standing still, people
can feel sweat dropping down their necks
in the sauna-like passage.
When this reporter went into the
under-construction tunnel in late July,
workers were kneeling on an ice pile
made up of dozens of large ice blocks.
“The happiest thing in this stuffy
tunnel is to take a 10-minute rest on the
ice pile,” said Wang Hong, a construction
worker, wiping the sweat from his face.
“Without the ice, I really don’t know how
to continue with the job.”
According to Wang, the average tem-
perature in the tunnel exceeds 45 degrees
Celsius.
In order to keep cool inside the tunnel
and create a better environment for the
workers, CREC-5 project management
has purchased an ice machine to providesome five tons of ice every six hours to
help regulate temperatures.
“Look, so much water can be squeezed
from my clothes,” Wang, in his 40s,
said with a smile, adding that working
in the tunnel for 10 minutes will turn
his clothes into a “raincoat,” and that
working in this environment means he is
prone to serious rheumatism.
Wang, who has been working in tun-
nel construction since 1999, has been a
part of the construction of more than 20
tunnels. He said the Ban Konlouang Tun-
nel of is the hottest he has ever worked
on, and also the tunnel with the
most difficulties.
Even so, Wang and his team
have set a record along the
China-Laos railway, for a
monthly excavation length
of 186 meters.
After a 10-minute
rest, Wang and the
workers drank their
full kettles of waterand then left the ice pile for the tunnel,
while another group of Chinese workers
arrived to find their own relief from the
heat.
In the staff dormitory later that eve-
ning, the first thing Wang and his
colleagues did was to
turn on theirelectric blankets. Although the region
relatively cool during rainy season, th
temperature at night in Oudomxay ca
reach around 25 degrees celsius.
This cannot be said to be cold, so w
do the Chinese tunnel workers turn o
their electric blankets?
It transpires that during the rainy
season, continuous precipitation not
only brings coolness but also dampne
Workers need to prepare electric blan
and spend an hour or so every day dry
their sheets and quilts.
According to Wang’s team worker,
Liping, they spend their daylight hour
in the tunnel and so must use electric
blankets at night instead of drying the
sheets and quilts in the sun.
He said that when waking up in th
morning, he can see small drops of w
on the quilt because of recent heavy
rains.Hot on the tracks of China-La
railway construction
Chinese workers overcome
harsh conditions for BRI
connectivity project
Workers at a tunnel of the China-Laos railway project in Yuxi, Southwest
China’s Yunnan Province, in April
Inset: Employees from China Railway No. 5 Engineering at a workshop in
Luang Namtha Province in northern Laos in March Photos: Xinhua