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 Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

, 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, Taman ...

, China. 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 province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of � ...

. 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, ...

. 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

, 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 D ...

. This section of China National Highway 349 opened on 8 December 2017 for trial operations.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{refend Transport in China Doilungdêqên District Qüxü County Expressways in Tibet