Recently, the Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission announced the 2021 list of Guangxi Engineering Research Centers, and the "Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Highway Tunnel Safety Warning Engineering Research Center," led by Guangxi Transportation Science and Technology Group, was approved. This center is the first tunnel-oriented engineering research platform approved for Guangxi Transportation Science and Technology Group. To date, the group has obtained approval for 10 provincial and ministerial-level or higher science and technology R&D platforms and 28 scientific research and innovation carriers, covering various specialized directions in the transportation field such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and intelligent transportation.

It is reported that the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Highway Tunnel Safety Warning Engineering Research Center is a scientific research platform oriented toward developing more timely and effective digital, information-based, and intelligent technologies for tunnel engineering safety warning, with the goal of achieving tunnel construction safety, structural safety, and operational safety, and it also absorbs, transforms, and promotes the application of technologies related to tunnel safety warning. The establishment of this center provides R&D technical service support for promoting proactive, advanced, dynamic, and intelligent safety monitoring and warning in tunnel construction and operation, will further advance the development of safety technologies for tunnel engineering construction and operation and maintenance in the region, and safeguards the construction and operational safety of tunnel projects in the region.

The center platform is hosted by the Tunnel and Geotechnical Engineering Research Institute of Guangxi Transportation Science and Technology Group. The institute mainly focuses on monitoring and inspection during tunnel and geotechnical engineering construction, safety warning, and technical consulting. Its business is divided into three major sectors. The first is tunnel engineering, including advanced geological forecasting, monitoring and measurement, lining quality inspection, anchor bolt quality inspection, fan bearing capacity testing, environmental monitoring, delivery and completion acceptance, technical consulting, and tunnel informatization services, as well as regular tunnel inspection during operation, special tunnel inspection, tunnel environmental testing, special inspection before tunnel renovation and reinforcement, health monitoring of operating tunnels, and technical consulting. The second is geotechnical engineering, including monitoring of high-fill subgrades, high slopes, and foundation pits, quality inspection of slope anchor bolts, technical consulting for treatment of special soil subgrade and slope defects, slope monitoring and informatization construction during operation, defect treatment, and technical consulting. The third is geophysical exploration engineering, including subgrade and pavement inspection, pipeline detection, and karst detection in tunnels and subgrades. At present, the center's technical achievements have been applied in the construction of more than 300 tunnels on over 60 expressways in more than ten provinces and regions, including Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guangdong, including nearly 30 extra-long tunnels, with remarkable results.