On August 20, the No. 1 inclined shaft of the Ganjia Tunnel on the Xining-Chengdu Railway was fully holed through, and work began on the main tunnel, marking the entry of this plateau railway tunnel, which exceeds ten thousand meters in total length, into an accelerated construction phase.

The Ganjia Tunnel is located in Labrang Town, Xiahe County, Gannan Prefecture, with a total length of 10.59 kilometers. It lies in an alpine mountainous area at an altitude of about 3,160 meters. The rock mass along the route is fractured and poor in stability, and the geological and climatic conditions are extremely complex, making it a major and difficult project on the Gansu section of the Xicheng Railway.

It is understood that in order to speed up project construction and increase the working faces of the main tunnel, the participating units built a total of 2 inclined shafts and 1 cross adit for the Ganjia Tunnel. Among them, the cross adit construction was completed by the end of 2023. The No. 1 inclined shaft holed through this time is 1.514 kilometers long; its bore passes through a 571-meter zone of large deformation in soft rock, and its relative height difference from the ground reaches 150 meters, equivalent to the height of a 53-story building, making construction extremely difficult.

The completion of the No. 1 inclined shaft construction has added two more working faces for the main tunnel construction, laying a solid foundation for the rapid advancement of tunnel construction. The participating personnel overcame adverse effects such as large temperature differences between day and night, long winters, and abundant summer rainfall, vigorously tightened project construction management, continuously optimized processes and construction methods, and made every effort to accelerate the main tunnel construction so as to ensure the project is fully completed as early as possible.

The main line of the Xicheng High-Speed Railway is 836.5 kilometers long, with a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour. It is an important component of the Lanzhou (Xining)-Guangzhou corridor of China's "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network and is being built in four sections. Among them, the main line of the Gansu and Qinghai sections is 329.6 kilometers long. Once the entire high-speed railway is completed, it will further strengthen the connection between the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "Maritime Silk Road," and is of great significance for promoting regional economic and social development, improving the travel quality of the people, and advancing rural revitalization.