As of June 28, the Badong Tunnel, a controlling project on the Zhengzhou–Wanzhou High-Speed Railway built by China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group, has only the final 100 meters remaining after 1,670 days of arduous work by the builders, and is about to break through.

The Badong Tunnel is located in Badong County, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, with a total length of 13,283 meters. Its highest peak is at Longchibao, with an elevation of about 1,306 meters; the lowest point is the bottom of the gully at the tunnel exit, with a minimum elevation of about 240 meters, a maximum relative height difference of about 1,066 meters.

The tunnel has a large water inflow and large settlement deformation; unfavorable geological conditions are frequent, making it a high-risk tunnel. During construction, risks such as rockfall and collapse, mud and water inrush are highly likely to occur.

Since the tunnel started construction in December 2016, the large-section mechanized method has been adopted for excavation, implementing the concept of "fast excavation, fast support, active reinforcement, fast closure." During construction, dynamic safety risk control was strengthened in areas such as advanced geological forecasting, advanced pre-reinforcement, overbreak and underbreak, initial support, and monitoring and measurement, achieving safe tunnel operation. Through activities to raise the tunnel's "level and step," the tunnel's mechanized construction capacity, engineering quality, management level, and construction efficiency have been significantly improved.

The Zhengzhou–Wanzhou High-Speed Railway has a total length of 818 kilometers, a design operating speed of 350 km/h, an initial operating speed of 300 km/h, and a designed transport capacity of 60 million passengers per year. The entire line is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in 2022, with the Henan section expected to be completed and opened in October 2019.

The line has 20 stations, including Zhengzhou East, Zhengzhou South, Changge North, Yuzhou East, Jiaxian, Pingdingshan West, Fangcheng, Nanyang South, Dengzhou East, Xiangyang Dongjin, Nanzhang, Baokang, Xinhua, Xingshan, Badong North, Wushan, Fengjie, Yunyang, and Wanzhou North.

Once completed, the fastest travel time from Zhengzhou to Chongqing will be only 4 hours, and to Beijing only 6.5 hours. It is of great significance for improving the layout of the national rapid railway network, enhancing the transport capacity and quality of the northeast-oriented railway corridor in the southwest region, and promoting economic and social development along the line.