The Lhasa Airport Expressway (), officially the Lhasa to Gonggar Airport Expressway (), also shortened to the ''Lagong Expressway'' () is an expressway that links
Lhasa Gonggar Airport
Lhasa Gonggar Airport (, bo, ལྷ་ས་གོང་དཀར་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་; ) is the airport serving Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. It is about to Lhasa and abou ...
to the city center of
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
, the capital of the autonomous region of
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The expressway is designated as S1, however this designation is unsigned, and signposts on the expressway simply refer to it as the ''Airport Expressway'' ().
Construction
The expressway from Lhasa to Gonggar Airport in
Shannan Prefecture
ShannanThe official spelling according to (), also romanized from Tibetan as Lhoka (; ), is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shannan includes Gonggar County within its jurisdiction with Gongkar Chö M ...
is the first expressway to be built in the
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...
.
Construction began in April 2009.
In May 2011 it was reported that the bridges and culverts were complete and tunnel construction was almost finished, with
66 percent of the road paved.
The expressway was completed eleven months ahead of schedule early in July 2011 at a cost of 1.59 billion yuan.
The opening ceremony was held on 17 July 2011, attended by Vice President
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...
.
Tibetan traditional dancers performed during the ceremony.
Description
The expressway is long and has four lanes.
It provides a link from metropolitan Lhasa's downtown to
Lhasa Gonggar Airport
Lhasa Gonggar Airport (, bo, ལྷ་ས་གོང་དཀར་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་; ) is the airport serving Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. It is about to Lhasa and abou ...
, the international airport serving the city. The expressway begins in the south end just west of the airport, and ends in the southeastern part of
Doilungdêqên District
Doilungdêqên District is a district in Lhasa, north-west of the main center of Chengguan, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is largely agricultural or pastoral, but contains the western suburbs of the city of Lhasa. The Duilong River runs southeast ...
, in
Liuwu New Area near
Lhasa railway station
Lhasa railway station (, ) is a railway station in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China.
Location
The railway station lies in Niu New Area, Doilungdêqên District, 1 kilometer to the south of the Lhasa River and 5 kilometers southwest of the ...
.
The speed limit is . Roadside lighting is solar powered.
Travel time is shortened to 30 minutes, half the time with the previous route.
Formerly travelers from the airport used the congested
China National Highway 318
China National Highway 318 (G318) runs from Shanghai to Zhangmu on the China-Nepal border. It is the longest China National Highway at in length and runs west from Shanghai towards Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, and ends in Tibet Au ...
.
The expressway connects at an interchange with
China National Highway 349 just north of the
Yarlung Tsangpo River
The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The upper section is also called Da ...
. This section of
China National Highway 349 opened on 8 December 2017 for trial operations.
References
Sources
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Transport in China
Doilungdêqên District
Qüxü County
Expressways in Tibet