The highway towards future China

China is constantly developing. From east to west opportunities arise, and the giant country needs great infrastructure to connect its many growing cities. The Jingxin Expressway links Beijing with Urumqi, the main city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in North Western China. When completed it will stretch more than 2,500 kilometres and cut through mountainous regions and vast, remote deserts. Part of the journey goes through the Gobi desert, where coming across fresh water is rare to say the least. However, ten Prefabricated Pumping Stations from Grundfos play a pivotal part in both the long and short term, making water available for construction workers now and quenching the travellers’ thirst in the future. The large, prefabricated stations made of fiberglass contain modern equipment including pumps – ready to work from day one on site.

“It goes without saying that availability of water is important. Working in a remote area like this comes with some challenges. Almost no people live along parts of the expressway, which makes the reliability of the water supply system very important. We need high quality equipment, as it is not easy to have service technicians coming to the sites,” says Qin Guo Zhang, Project Manager at the Shuangan Yongji Industrial Technology Co., Ltd., who handled construction of the Jingxin Highway.

Speed and resilience
The highway runs through the Gobi desert, where the environment is harsh. Temperatures can be tremendously high and viciously low. This poses high demands on both the equipment installed and the people working there.

“Because of the environment, working conditions on site are tough. Installation must be handled fast as living conditions for the people working here are poor and the equipment must be resilient,” says Qin Guo Zhang.

And because water is also important in the construction process, the pumping stations needed to be ready in a very short period of time, making the plug and play solution from Grundfos ideal.

“The schedule was very tight. Grundfos supplied the whole system solution and met our requested lead time,” Qin Guo Zhang adds.

New roads ahead
For Grundfos, the Jingxin Expressway project came with many positive sides. Apart from being the first of its kind in China and a testimony to the company’s production capability, it also holds some interesting perspectives going forward.

“First of all we are proud to play a part in connecting China and play a part facilitating our country’s growth. And we feel happy to grow along with the projects. The Jingxin Expressway is not the only one of its kind, and it opens new opportunities for us in the water supply industry. For instance, water supply along long railway stretches as well as other highways. At the same time being chosen for a high priority project such as the Jingxin Expressway also strengthens Grundfos reputation in the business,” says Jason Dang, Senior Sales Manager for Water Utility, Waste Water and Water Supply at Grundfos China.

 The pumping stations are located on an 815-kilometre stretch from Linhe to Bai Geda south of Mongolia.