Deformation characteristics of ventiduct embankment on Qinghai-Tibet railway

The Qinghai-Tibet railway, the highest railway in terms of elevation, was built under the harshest of weather conditions in the world. A new technique, called the ventiduct embankment, was used for the first time in railway construction in the Qinghai-Tibet permafrost region of China to overcome the specific difficulties of the permafrost plateau. To evaluate its effectiveness, several full-scale test embankments were constructed at a representative field site, the Qing-shuihe experimental section. The effectiveness of the ventiduct embankment structure has been verified by comparing it with the performance of the nearby control embankment in terms of permafrost table, settlement, and thaw depth. These observations are presented in this paper. The ventiduct embankment structure based on this study has been adopted in Qinghai-Tibet permafrost railway construction. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0887-381 X(2008)22:4(124) CE Database subject headings: China; Rail transportation; Permafrost; Embankments; Settlement; Deformation.