According to the general contracting department of the Guanglian Expressway project, on June 20, the double-line Luojiaying Tunnel under Section TJ03 and the right line of Hutoushan Tunnel under Section TJ04 of the Guanglian Expressway project were successfully holed through, marking another milestone achievement in comprehensively accelerating the project's construction and bringing it one step closer to the goal of opening to traffic by the end of the year.

The Luojiaying Tunnel has a total length of 860 meters, with its left tube holed through on January 17, 2021; the right line of Hutoushan Tunnel has a designed total length of 2,123 meters. Construction began in April 2018, and under the organization and management of all project parties, the Hutoushan Tunnel was successfully holed through on schedule after 771 days.

The two tunnels carry certain safety risks and are difficult to construct. The Luojiaying Tunnel is designed as a "separated + small-clearance" tunnel, with all surrounding rock of Grades IV and V, complex geology, and weak surrounding rock; since construction began, the right line of Hutoushan Tunnel has successively encountered weak landslide sections at the portal, broken surrounding rock inside the tunnel, water-rich zones, faults and their fracture zones, and poor self-stability.

Faced with the difficulties of a tight schedule and heavy tasks, Guanglian Expressway implemented grid-based management and carried out special activities such as the prevention and treatment of common quality problems in tunnels. The general contracting department of the Guanglian Expressway project worked in coordination with the project departments, reversed the tunnel construction schedule, optimized construction organization, and minimized the impact of adverse factors such as the rainy season on tunnel construction.

Guanglian Expressway is a provincial key project. The Qingyuan section of Guanglian Expressway will strive to open to traffic by the end of the year, and the drive from Lianzhou to Guangzhou is expected to be shortened from 3.5 hours to about 2 hours. Its construction will connect the "dead-end road" of the expressway from Guangzhou to Lianzhou, ease traffic pressure on the Guangzhou–Lechang Expressway, the Beijing–Hong Kong–Macao Expressway, and the Pearl River Delta Ring Expressway, and help northern Guangdong integrate into the Pearl River Delta and the Greater Bay Area.