Yangon-Mandalay Expressway
The Yangon-Mandalay Expressway is an expressway in Myanmar between the former capital Yangon (German: Rangoon ) and the metropolis of Mandalay . It was opened to public transport at the end of December 2010. The road cut the travel time from Yangon to Mandalay from 13 hours by train or 16 hours by highway to 7 hours.
history
prehistory
Already at the end of the 1950s there were plans to build a motorway between Rangoon and Mandalay. During the Cold War, the United States offered Burma financial and technical support for highway construction as part of its development policy . Possibly the project was part of the “ Pyidawtha project ” designed in 1954 by the German-English economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher . When the project became known, there was a violent protest from the People's Republic of China , which at the same time offered to plant the traffic islands. The People's Republic of China feared that the US armed forces could use the planned highway as a replacement runway for the wars in Indochina. The socialist form of government that emerged after the 1962 military coup prevented the project from being realized.
The first try
The planned route was between the Rangon-Mandalay Highway and the Pegu Yoma Mountains . The Pegu Yoma Mountains were a strategically important base for the Burmese Communist Party . After the Communists were expelled from Pegu Yoma in 1973, General Ne Win's socialist military regime planned to build the expressway in the mid-1970s. For this, the regime received a cement factory in Kyangin as development aid from Japan . But instead of using the machines, the regime used prisoners for the construction of gravel and for clearing or clearing the jungle for the route. At that time, the “Nget-Aw-Sann” labor camp north of Hlegu in Burma was known. The regime abandoned the plan about 3 years after it had started because it had to export the cement from the new factory abroad instead of for the construction of the expressway for the lack of foreign currency.
The new attempt
After the 8888 uprising , the new military regime allowed private business and intensified infrastructure projects. New cement factories were built by the state and private companies, as well as a new own steel production facility in Magwe , Pinpet and Wanetchaung . They enabled the manufacture of structural steel and steel girders for bridge and road construction. The regime received foreign currency in exchange for gas exports to Thailand . Construction work began in October 2005 and the official opening of the entire route took place on December 29, 2010.
Construction phases
Both people, including around 15,000 unskilled workers, and machines were used in the construction. In addition to road construction machines (excavator buckets and shovels, wheel loaders, graders, crawler loaders, single drum rollers and dumpers), the images recorded by passers-by also show slipform pavers for paving the concrete surface.
The highway was inaugurated by the Road Department of Public Works , but construction was carried out with the participation of the Directorate of Military Engineering .
Yangon - Naypyidaw
- Construction time: October 2005 - March 2009
- Opening on March 25, 2009
- Distance: 323.2 km (202 miles)
- Bridges over 60 meters: 40 pieces
Naypyidaw - Mandalay
- Construction time: approx. 2007 - December 2010
- Opening on March 29, 2010
- Distance: 240.0 km (150 miles)
- Bridges over 60 meters: 32 pieces
Mandalay (Sagainn) - Mandalay (Dagundaing) [4-lane]
- Construction time: approx. 2010 - December 2011
- Opening on December 30, 2011
- Distance: 18.3 km (13.5 miles)
- Bridges over 60 meters: not known
Technical specifications
The completed expressway has two separate lanes with two lanes each. There is a 9.14 meter (30 foot) wide traffic island between the lanes. Each lane is 25 feet (7.62 meters) wide; H. each lane is 3.81 meters wide. This carriageway lies under a 30 centimeter (1 foot) thick reinforced concrete ceiling and is concreted in on the 15 centimeter (½ foot) thick and 8.23 meter (27 foot) wide base course. There are a total of 842 box curverts , 1396 bridges and 116 underpasses ( underpasses ) along the route.
The load capacity of the road is 80 tons; the speed limit is 100 km / h. There are no hard shoulders or hard shoulder, acceleration lanes and exit lanes.
toll
The expressway's five toll stations are located in Yangon , Phyu, Naypyidaw , Meikhtila and Mandalay . The tolls from Yangon to Mandalay are 4,500 kyat for cars up to 1 ton and 22,500 kyat for buses up to 10 tons. It is not yet allowed to drive on the route with trucks.
standardization
The traffic signs along the expressway do not meet international standards. At the curves, the road is concreted in without a bank slope, so it is impossible to negotiate the curve at a constant speed. According to the exile news agencies Irrawaddy ( Thailand ) and Mizzima ( India ), these deficiencies lead to numerous accidents on the corners. According to the NLM, the transverse slope was taken into account in the design and carried out when the road was concreted in order to ensure a constant speed when cornering. There are also many accidents when leaving the expressway because there is no delay lane .
Rest areas, police stations and petrol stations do not meet international standards. Many drivers are inexperienced in driving on expressways, and there is also a lack of knowledge of road traffic regulations. Therefore, many accidents occur.
It is not known whether there are makeshift airfields for military use in some places .
Possible extension
According to newspaper reports from Myanmar, South Korean and Japanese companies in the highway and expressway construction industries have visited the country's transport minister and minister of construction. Therefore, future improvements in the area of traffic signs and the lanes on the curves are possible.
The possible expansion of the carriageway to eight lanes has not yet been announced, although the regime has often mentioned an eight-lane expressway. One possible extension of the route is the Yangon-Pathein Expressway (also Rangun-Basein Expressway ), because a new bridge (two lanes with one railroad track) is currently being built over the Ayeyawaddy River (Irrawaddy), which is about 800 meters upstream from two existing lanes the BoMyatHtun Bridge and the government has announced several times a four-lane connection between Yangon and Pathein.
literature
- New Light of Myanmar December 29, 2010 ( online ; PDF file; 1.45 MB) and December 30, 2010 ( online ; PDF file; 2.38 MB)
- The Irrawaddy News
- The Mizzima News
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ ARD-Weltspiegel from January 23, 2011