Technicians and researchers have long struggled to combat the negative effects of climate change on the permafrost soil that forms the bed of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, according to the highway authorities in the Tibet autonomous region.

"The rapid thawing of the frozen soil can lead to great instability, causing land slippage and other major problems in areas where major projects such as highways or railways run," said Wu Ziwang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Science's frozen soil engineering lab.

In the past decade, the autonomous region's Commission for Science and Technology has collaborated with a number of universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in an effort to solve the problem. Technical measures such as insulating panels and ventilated embankments have been widely used in key sections of the highway.