At 17:48 on June 4, with the sound of a blast, the Hengshan Tunnel—the most challenging control project in the construction of the Jining–Datong–Yuanping High-Speed Railway—was successfully holed through, clearing the last bottleneck for subsequent track-laying and other construction operations and laying an important foundation for the line to meet the conditions for opening to traffic by the end of the year.

The Jining–Datong–Yuanping High-Speed Railway (Jidayuan High-Speed Railway) connects north to Ulanqab City of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, passes through Datong City, Shuozhou City and Xinzhou City of Shanxi Province, merges into the Datong–Xi'an High-Speed Railway, and connects with the Zhangjiakou–Datong, Zhengzhou–Taiyuan and under-construction Xiong'an–Xinzhou high-speed railways. It is an important component of the Hohhot–Nanning corridor of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed rail network. The newly built line totals about 270.808 km, of which about 197.134 km is in Shanxi Province, with a design speed of 250 km/h. The Hengshan Tunnel is located at the border between Shuozhou and Xinzhou cities in Shanxi Province, with a total length of 14.76 km, and is a single-tube double-track tunnel.

Wang Feng, chief engineer of the Hengshan Tunnel project of China Railway Tunnel Group, introduced that in response to the complex and variable geological environment, construction personnel used advance drilling, deepened blast holes and other means to ascertain the conditions of the surrounding rock in advance and adjust excavation parameters and support parameters in a timely manner. During construction, measures such as peripheral grouting, curtain grouting, radial grouting and the addition of temporary cross-bracing were adopted to improve the original geology, minimize construction risks to the greatest extent, overcome difficulties such as more than a hundred instances of collapse and frequent water inflow, and ensure the safe holing-through of the tunnel.