On June 11, construction began on the Shangli Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the entire Huangtong-Baise Railway, a landmark project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, with project construction advancing rapidly and steadily.

With a total length of 17,276 meters, the Shangli Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the entire Huangbai Railway and the longest existing railway tunnel in Guangxi.

The tunnel is located in the sloping transition zone between the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the Guangxi Basin, where the terrain is highly undulating, with a relative elevation difference of up to 710 meters. The tunnel body passes beneath the Yinbai Expressway and the main channel of the Changsha River. During construction, in addition to overcoming risks such as collapses, sudden water and mud inrushes, and portal instability, it is also necessary to ensure the driving safety of the Yinbai Expressway, making construction highly difficult.

During construction, the project command headquarters strengthened advanced geological forecasting and risk identification and control, optimized smooth blasting and pre-splitting blasting construction techniques, reduced drilling workload, the consumption of explosives and detonators, and damage to surrounding rock, so as to ensure construction safety. At the same time, intelligent energy-saving ventilation technology for tunnels was adopted to improve the working environment of frontline workers, save cycle advance time, and ensure construction progress.

At present, temporary works such as concrete mixing stations, steel reinforcement processing yards, and construction personnel camp areas for the Guangxi section of the Huangbai Railway have basically been completed, and tunnel engineering is being comprehensively advanced. Among the 27 work sites of the 9 tunnels under early-stage construction, 17 work sites have already achieved excavation construction.

The Huangbai Railway is jointly invested in and constructed by Guangxi Communications Investment Group, China Railway Nanning Group, China Railway Chengdu Group, and Guizhou Railway Investment Group. The line has a total length of about 315 kilometers and a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour, and is an important component of the main corridor of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor.

The Guangxi section of the Huangbai Railway includes 33 new tunnels with a total length of 109.735 kilometers and 33 new bridges with a total length of 15.974 kilometers, with a bridge-tunnel ratio as high as 90.6%, the highest among railways in Guangxi at present. After the project is completed, it will become the freight backbone corridor with the shortest transport distance, optimal efficiency, and shortest operating time from Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi to Beibu Gulf Port. It is of great significance for further improving the regional railway network layout and promoting regional economic and social development.