Abstract Research purposes: The railway between Golmud and Lhasa of Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the highest railway above sea level and longest railway crossing plateau permafrost regions with total length of 1 142 km. Therefore,lots of technical difficulties were met in course of construction of the railway because of bad environmental conditions,complex geological conditions and strict requirement of environment protection. In this paper the ideas are further expressed on how to solve the problem of construction of railway in permafrost region of high altitude and how to construct Qinghai-Tibet Railway into the first-class railway in the world from the aspects of characteristics of permafrost region on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,main engineering problems,the work of tackling key scientific and technical problems,the measures taken for the construction and the main stage achievements made for the construction,and the issues necessary to be further researched are also put forward.
Research conclusions: Based on the systematic analysis and research,the heat stability , ice content , distribution of unfavourable frozen soil and its change regularity of the permafrost region in which the railway line crosses are found out which can provide basic guarantee for tackling difficult problems of construction of railway in permafrost region. The design idea and treatment principle of“lowering temperature actively,cooling subgrade and protection of frozen soil" are presented to the subgrade engineering,and the concrete type of engineering structure is also offered.