The State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering(SKLFSE) is a core research entity in the related research areas. The SKLFSE aims at Providing scientific basis and solving scientific, technological and engineering problems encountered in national strategic and key engineering programs, such as the programs for building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) and the Water Transfer from the Yangtze to Yellow Rivers. The primary research is focused on freeze-thaw processes in soils (rocks) and other porous media in the cryosphere, their related mechanical, physical, chemical and biological processes, ecosystems and water and land resources in cold regions, features and models, and their engineering applications. At present, the SKLFSE is the largest laboratory focusing on frozen soils research in China, and an international center on permafrost engineering.

The total length of QTR from Golmud to Lhasa is 1,142 km, with the length of the new line of 1,118 km in which 960 km is above 4000 m asl in elevation. The QTR traverses 632 km in plateau continuous permafrost, 82 km in discontinuous permafrost. Particularly, QTR goes through 275 km of warm (with the annual mean ground temperature above -1.0℃), 221km of ice-rich permafrost regions. The most challenging problems are largely associated with the 134 km of both warm and ice-rich permafrost, for which proactive cooling approaches were applied on the QTR roadbeds and embankments based on meticulous experiments and studies. In order to fully utilize and explain the results of scientific research programs for the QTR constructors and the public, a demonstration section for engineering design and construction were established in the Beiluhe area along the QTR. A platform for dynamic monitoring, experimental research, and data processing and predicting QTR roadbed behaviors has been built to provide a continuous support for the QTR design improvement, construction, operation, maintenance and emergency responses.