Xuanjiaping Tunnel in the Hubei Section of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway Successfully Breaks Through

On June 11, the Xuanjiaping Tunnel in the Hubei section of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway, constructed and managed by Hubei Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd. of Wuhan-Jiujiang Railway and built by China Railway 12th Bureau Group Co., Ltd., was successfully holed through. A total of 26.5 tunnels are planned and designed for the Hubei section of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway, and the Xuanjiaping Tunnel is the 16.5th tunnel to be holed through, marking phased construction achievements in the Hubei section.

The Xuanjiaping Tunnel is located in Xiangkou Township, Yunxi County, Shiyan City, with a total length of 2,369 meters. Class IV surrounding rock accounts for 52% and Class V surrounding rock accounts for 48%, and construction is organized at two working faces, the entrance and the exit. The tunnel is situated in the intersection zone of the northern slope of the Wudang Mountains at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains. Two fault zones developed in the tunnel body, and up to six types of lithology are encountered, mainly limestone, slate, dolomite, schist, phyllite, and cataclastic rock. Because the surrounding rock is relatively soft and the lithology changes rapidly, the tunnel features complex geological conditions, great construction difficulty, and high risk during construction.

Since the tunnel officially started construction in April 2022, the construction unit has successively overcome a series of construction difficulties, including loose and broken surrounding rock, shallow cover when crossing gullies, mud and water inrushes inside the tunnel, and well-developed joints and fissures in the surrounding rock. Finally, after 26 months, the successful holing-through was ensured, laying a solid foundation for the early completion and opening of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway.

The Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway starts from Xi'an City in Shaanxi Province in the west, runs eastward through the Qinling Mountains, passes through Shangluo, and ends at Shiyan City in Hubei Province, connecting with the existing Wuhan-Shiyan High-Speed Railway to form another rapid railway passenger corridor from Xi'an to Wuhan. The newly built main line of the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway has a total length of 255.7 kilometers, of which 169.4 kilometers are within Shaanxi Province and 86.3 kilometers within the Hubei section, with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

After the Xi'an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway is completed and opened to traffic, it will be of great significance for improving the layout of the national high-speed railway network, strengthening the connection between the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration, and accelerating tourism and social and economic development along the line.