Since construction began in July 2018, through the joint efforts of the engineering builders, the first tunnel in the Xinchang section of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway —— Maoyangling No.1 Tunnel —— was officially completed at 22:18 on January 11!

After the breakthrough, the construction personnel carried out risk elimination and support on the breakthrough working face, and the breakthrough ceremony was held at 10 a.m. on January 12.

Maoyangling No.1 Tunnel has a total length of 3147 meters and a maximum burial depth of about 182 meters. It is a single-tube double-track tunnel and also the first long tunnel to break through on the entire line. The tunnel passes through hilly areas with undulating terrain and well-developed gullies, and the overall engineering geological conditions are poor.

Wang Xiaohui, chief engineer of the second division of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway Project Department of China Railway 18th Bureau Group, introduced that there are four fault fracture zones in the entire tunnel. Measures such as advanced peripheral grouting and radial grouting were adopted to reinforce the broken surrounding rock, and construction followed the principles of short advance, weak blasting, frequent measurement, and quick sealing.

The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway has a length of 28.48 kilometers within Xinchang, with a bridge-tunnel ratio of 99.4% and a total investment of 4.44 billion yuan. Up to now, the province's longest tunnel —— Dongming Tunnel —— has been excavated 14,700 meters, with a completion rate of 80.6%. Sub-projects such as Maoyangling No.2 Tunnel, Jiulongshan Tunnel, and Zuoyujiang Grand Bridge are also progressing in an orderly manner as planned.

It is understood that as one of the eight national demonstration projects for social capital investment in railways, the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Railway is the country's first private-controlled PPP high-speed rail project, setting a model for reform and innovation in China's railway construction. After the project is completed, Xinchang County will end its history of having no railway, realize the dream of Xinchang citizens traveling by train, and also help Xinchang better integrate into the Hangzhou Bay metropolitan area and accelerate the pace of Yangtze River Delta integration.