On August 25, good news came again from the heart of the Tianshan Mountains! At the construction site of the Gongnaisite Grand Bridge on the G3033 Kuitun–Dushanzi–Kuqa Expressway (referred to as the "Kuiduku Expressway"), a Sunward SWDM800 super-large rotary drilling rig stood firmly in place. As the drill bit broke through the hard stratum, the first pile of the bridge's main span was successfully drilled, marking that this bridge—the longest-span and tallest-tower bridge in Xinjiang's highway sector—has officially entered the main bridge construction stage.

The Kuiduku Expressway is a major transportation project in China's 15th Five-Year Plan, with a total length of 393 kilometers. It is currently the highway project under construction in China with the largest single-project investment and the highest technical difficulty, and is known as the "Xinjiang Geological Museum." Once completed, travel time from Kuitun to Kuqa will be shortened from the current 14 hours to 4 hours, enabling year-round, all-weather traffic.

As one of the key control projects along the entire Kuiduku Expressway, the Gongnaisite Grand Bridge is located at the border between Xinyuan County of Ili Prefecture and Hejing County of Bayingolin Prefecture, crossing the Gongnaisite River Valley. It is constructed by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group. The main bridge is 790 meters long, with a main span of 390 meters and a maximum main tower height of 241.2 meters. Once completed, it will surpass the Guozigou Bridge and set two new records for bridges in Xinjiang. Because the bridge is located in the ecologically sensitive area of Gongnaisite National Forest Park, it adopts the environmentally friendly design concept of "large spans with fewer piers, high spans with less excavation," making construction extremely difficult.

The machine undertaking the important task of the first pile is precisely the Sunward SWDM800 rotary drilling rig. The first pile is Pile No. 5 of Pier No. 35, with a length of 60 meters, a diameter of 2.5 meters, and a designed concrete volume of 294 cubic meters. Faced with the complex geological conditions in the heart of the Tianshan Mountains, the SWDM800, with its superior rock-penetration capability, is drilling at full capacity with a stable and efficient rhythm, maintaining smooth operation during high-intensity continuous work. Its drilling efficiency has been highly recognized by the on-site construction party, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent construction of the main bridge pier columns.

From setting a world record for rotary drilling depth at the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, to tackling 140 MPa granite—the "hard bone"—at the Changsha Xiangjiang Railway Grand Bridge, and now to helping press the "accelerator" on transportation construction north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the Sunward SWDM800 rotary drilling rig has repeatedly made outstanding contributions in multiple national key projects and is truly a "record-breaking champion."