At 10:38 on March 25, as the roar of machinery sounded, construction on the Zhumachang Tunnel on the Hubei Xiangyang-Yichang Expressway, undertaken by China Railway 18th Bureau Group, began with tunnel excavation.

The Zhumachang Tunnel is one of the controlling works of the Yichang section of the Xiangyi Expressway. Located in Hekou Township, Yuan'an County, the tunnel has a total length of 3,800 meters and is the longest tunnel on the Yuan'an section of the Xiangyi Expressway.

Affected by the geological structure, the surrounding mountains are layered and the geology is complex. During excavation, challenges such as weak interlayers and gas outbursts will be encountered, with risks of collapse and explosion, making construction relatively difficult. The special tunnel environment and the complexity of the technology have made this a key engineering point for the project contractor to safeguard.

In the face of the difficulties and steep terrain of the Zhumachang Tunnel, the construction team, based on actual conditions, scientifically prepared a special tunnel construction plan, built a 1,500-meter winding mountain access road in advance, promptly constructed an intercepting ditch above the tunnel body, comprehensively cleared dangerous rocks above the tunnel body, and installed more than 150 square meters of active protective netting. At the same time, a two-heading simultaneous excavation mode was adopted, and advanced intelligent equipment was introduced, such as dual-folding-boom rock drilling jumbos and wet concrete spraying manipulators, supported by eight major information systems for real-time monitoring, to ensure safe, rapid and high-quality excavation of the Zhumachang Tunnel.

The Xiangyang-Yichang Expressway (Yichang section) is the southern section of the national Pingdingshan-Yichang Expressway and has been included in the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Comprehensive Transportation Development of Hubei Province and the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Expressway Development of Hubei Province. The project construction route has a total length of 87.528 kilometers, and the entire line is built to a 100 km/h expressway standard. The construction period is 48 months, with a total investment of approximately 15.3 billion yuan.

After the project is completed, the journey from Hekou to Xiangyang will be greatly shortened, and the travel time on the Xiangyang-Yichang Expressway will be reduced from the current 3 hours to 1.5 hours. It is of great significance for achieving direct expressway connection between Yichang and Xiangyang, the two provincial sub-central cities, promoting the linkage between the Han River and the Yangtze River and the connection between the Central Plains and the Three Gorges, advancing the coordinated development of the Yijingjing and Xiangyang metropolitan areas, and serving and supporting Hubei's efforts to accelerate the building of a pioneer zone for the new development pattern.