On March 20, the last set of No. 42 high-speed ballastless turnouts for 350 km/h was laid at Shangrao Station within the section managed by the Shanghai-Kunming Project Department of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) 15th Bureau Group. With this, all six passenger dedicated line turnouts on the Jiangxi section of the Shanghai-Kunming Passenger Dedicated Line—the largest in number, with the highest lateral passing speed and the greatest total length—have been fully laid.

　

　　“The No. 42 high-speed ballastless turnout is designed for a straight-through passing speed of 350 km/h without deceleration, which imposes extremely high requirements. We dared not slack off or be negligent in any way,” said Captain Wang, who is in charge of high-speed turnout construction on site. The No. 42 high-speed ballastless turnout has a total length of 157.2 meters, with a switch rail and base rail length of 46.19 meters and a total weight of 81.6 tons. The switch rail and base rail assemblies, as well as the glued insulated rails, are all extra-long and extra-large components, posing great transport difficulties and high construction requirements.

　

　　Within the section managed by the Group's Shanghai-Kunming Project Department, there are a total of six No. 42 ballastless turnouts, with two located on the Henggang connecting line and four within Shangrao Station in the Group's managed section. Among them, the two on the Henggang connecting line were laid before the Spring Festival.

　

　　Because the No. 42 ballastless turnouts are overweight and extra-long, and other works at Shangrao Station are gradually being completed, the access roads can hardly meet their transport needs, making construction extremely difficult. The project department invested substantial manpower and material resources in the construction. Special vehicles were used to transport the turnouts to the side of the national highway, where they were hoisted from the highway to the construction site, and then, with the assistance of 40 workers over three days, pushed step by step to the designated construction points.

　

　　During the construction of the 100 turnouts, in order to ensure the smooth positioning of the turnouts and the smooth progress of track laying, since the turnout laying began, on-site workers have overcome harsh weather including heat, heavy snow and continuous rain to carry out turnout assembly and fine adjustment on site.