At 9:20 on June 22, with the final blast, after 1,400 days, the Zhongxing Tunnel, a controlling project on the entire Chongqing–Qianjiang section of the Chongqing–Hunan High-Speed Railway, was successfully holed through, laying a solid foundation for the early opening of the entire line.

The Zhongxing Tunnel is located in Jiangkou Town, Wulong District, with a total length of 10,005 meters and a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour. It is a Class II high-risk tunnel with an extremely complex geological environment, containing adverse geological conditions such as karst, rockbursts, water inrush, mud inrush, coal seams and gas, and carrying extremely high safety risks. It is a key and difficult controlling project on the entire line.

"The geological structure in the tunnel site area of the Zhongxing Tunnel is complex, with well-developed karst. During construction, more than 30 karst caves of varying sizes were found, with the largest karst section reaching 110 meters in length," introduced Gao Weimin, project manager of the 10th bid section of the Chongqing–Qianjiang Railway under China Railway 12th Bureau Group. To ensure safe tunneling, the builders made full use of scientific means such as advanced geological forecasting, monitoring and measurement, advanced drilling and borehole imaging, effectively reducing safety risks.

Yang Zhiyong, commander of the Wulong Command of the Chongqing–Qianjiang Railway Co., Ltd., introduced that the shallow-buried section at the tunnel entrance passes beneath a village, posing relatively high safety risks. The project builders ensured safe underpassing by formulating special construction plans, and ground settlement was kept within the safe range.

It is understood that the tunnel site of the Zhongxing Tunnel is located in a mountainous area with steep terrain and large elevation differences, and the tunnel exit is located on the cliff edge of the Wujiang River. The transportation of materials and equipment was relatively difficult, and construction materials such as concrete could only be transported to the site by ferry, ensuring the final completion of construction. At present, of the 54 tunnels on the Chongqing–Qianjiang section of the Chongqing–Hunan High-Speed Railway, only 3 have yet to be holed through.

The Chongqing–Qianjiang section of the Chongqing–Hunan High-Speed Railway is an important part of the Xiamen–Chongqing corridor in the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network in China's Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan. After the project is completed, travel time from Qianjiang, Chongqing to the central urban area will be shortened from the current 4 hours to less than 1 hour, greatly improving travel conditions for residents along the line. At that time, it will further strengthen mutual connections between the areas along the line and economically developed regions such as the West Coast Economic Zone of the Taiwan Strait and the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It is of great significance for integrating tourism resources along the line, accelerating the development of the "greater tourism economy" in the areas along the line, and promoting the rapid development of the regional social economy.