At 10:00 a.m. on July 23, 2021, Feng Jiahui, commander of the Qujing Qishi and Luoba Expressway Construction Command, announced the full breakthrough of the Zheibai Tunnel on the Luoba Expressway. Colorful flags waved and firecrackers resounded at the tunnel portal. For the people in the deep mountains of Dashuijing Township, Luoping County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, it was a day worth celebrating, because the breakthrough of the Zheibai Tunnel was the greatest happy event for local residents in more than a year and represented a major breakthrough in completely changing the area's inconvenient transportation conditions.

The Zheibai Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the entire Luoba Expressway and a controlling project for the whole line. It was constructed in two tubes: the left tube is 4.939 km long and the right tube is 4.932 km long. The left tube broke through on June 29.

To celebrate this victorious moment, representatives of the owner, design, supervision and local government gathered at the Luoba Project Department of the Fifth Company of China Railway First Group. Led by Feng Jiahui and other leaders, they traveled from the right tube of the Zheibai Tunnel to the breakthrough point, interacted with the construction workers in congratulation, and then returned to the tunnel portal for a brief breakthrough ceremony.

Xiao Zhimin, deputy commander and chief supervision engineer of the command, presented an award plaque to the project department, and Mao Lugui, deputy commander of the command, read out the commendation decision for the project department. Zeng Zhihui, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Luoba Project of the Fifth Company of China Railway First Group, delivered a welcome speech, and Yang Youping, safety director, presided over the ceremony.

Today, accompanied by the crisp sound of firecrackers and the waving of bright colorful flags, clouds drifted over the Wanfenglin mountains and fish swam in the Bada River. When people associated with the Luoba project or the Zheibai Tunnel first saw the news in the project management WeChat group, they could not contain their excitement. Xu Jinxiang, a principal leader of the Party Committee of the Fifth Company, project leaders Zeng Zhihui, Fu Xinggui, Dang Dongliang and Yang Youping, and all construction personnel expressed congratulations by phone, WeChat, Douyin, red envelopes, hugs and various other means. At that moment, many construction employees shed tears of excitement.

The Zheibai Tunnel is located in karst terrain, with many cave groups, frequently changing surrounding rock, complex and variable geology and many safety hazards. It lies in the Wanfengshan protection area, where land acquisition and demolition are difficult, construction water is scarce and construction is highly challenging. Under the attention and guidance of the Fifth Company of China Railway First Group, cadres and employees of the project department found ways to overcome difficulties and quickly opened up the work face. They organized carefully, managed scientifically and optimized the construction plan many times. During construction, they strictly followed the principles of "weak blasting, short advance, strong support and frequent measurement," overcame difficulties such as sudden caves, reverse-slope drainage and rock sliding layers, and pressed ahead with construction tasks while ensuring safety and quality, continuously accelerating progress and achieving a smooth breakthrough with high precision and high quality.

In the course of project management, the project department successively won honors from the owner including "First Prize in Labor Competition," "Advanced Unit in Phase II Construction" and "Demonstration Unit for Observation Activities." It also won the group company's titles of "Advanced Grassroots Party Organization," "Safety Model Site," "Advanced Project Department" and "Red Flag Party Organization," as well as the "Worker Pioneer" title from the Baoji Municipal Federation of Trade Unions. On April 28, 2021, the owner held an on-site observation meeting and the exit breakthrough ceremony at the Zheibai Tunnel portal, while the Qujing Municipal Federation of Trade Unions held a labor competition launch ceremony at the same portal. The Luoba project contributed to China Railway First Group being rated AA in the 2020 Yunnan Province credit evaluation of highway construction enterprises.

In 2020, the project department established the management philosophy of "safe and high-quality, refined and efficient, and striving to be first." Leading all the way in the Zheibai Tunnel and advancing triumphantly, it demonstrated the prowess of the Fifth Company of China Railway First Group across eastern Yunnan, established the "Luoba" brand, explored a new management model combining the project legal-person construction system with back-office control, and added luster to the golden brand of China Railway First Group deep in the mountains where Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi meet.

In 2021, the project department focused on the "two breakthroughs and four innovations" work priorities: the two major milestones of the tunnel's exit breakthrough and observation meeting in April and full breakthrough in July, and the four innovations of "talent echelon," "simulated equity," "technical processes" and "harmonious team." It continued to lead and its triumphant song rang out even louder.

In the development history of the Fifth Company of China Railway First Group, which has created countless miracles in tunnel construction, the Zheibai Tunnel is but a small wave. However, the success of the Luoba project contains many innovative ideas worth exploring. These mainly include: implementing "standardized processes" in basic work, emphasizing "interactive exchange" in technical training, delivering "shared results" in the business process, forming a "trapezoidal team" in talent cultivation, promoting "four new achievements" in techniques and methods, emphasizing the "combination of cost reduction and increase" in secondary business operations, creating a "safe construction site" through strict control, and keeping Party and mass work closely tied to "construction production."

The smooth breakthrough of both tunnels will greatly improve construction conditions inside the tunnel, help optimize construction resources, and lay a solid foundation for the completion of the main works of the Zheibai Tunnel and the Luoba project's ultimate achievement of good benefits.

More than 360 years ago, the famous geographer and traveler Xu Xiake came to Wanfenglin and exclaimed: "There are so many peaks under heaven, but only here do peaks form a forest." When the Zheibai Tunnel broke through, local villagers also marveled: "There are so many peaks in Wanlin, but only Zheibai is traversed like a god."