On March 13, at the construction site of the Helan Mountain Tunnel on the Yinba Branch Line of the Baotou-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway, concrete mixer trucks roared, and the builders went all out to catch up on the schedule and speed up progress, ensuring that the construction task would be completed on time.

　　The project is 8,792 meters long in total and is the first railway tunnel to pass through the Helan Mountains, making construction highly difficult. As the rock mass was penetrated, cumulative excavation of the Helan Mountain Tunnel exceeded 4,200 meters.

　　Tunnel construction is relatively complex and involves procedures such as drilling and blasting excavation, initial support, waterproofing, and concrete pouring, among which drilling and blasting excavation is the most difficult. Nearly 400 builders are working on the front line at the tunnel site, operating on three shifts and carrying out uninterrupted 24-hour operations. To accelerate tunnel construction progress, an excavation mode using the exit section, 2 inclined shafts, and 5 working faces has been adopted, with monthly advance reaching 460 to 500 meters.

　　The Yinba Branch Line of the Baotou-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway is an important part of the Beijing-Lanzhou corridor of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" railway network and is expected to open to traffic along the entire line in 2026. After the Ningxia section of the Yinba Branch Line of the Baotou-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway is completed, it will promote rapid and seamless connection between Ningxia and surrounding urban agglomerations and is of great significance in areas such as economic and social development, tourism resource development, opening up, regional integration, and meeting passengers' demand for rapid travel.