Recently, with the double-tube breakthrough of the Huangshajie Tunnel (now renamed Jiulongchi Tunnel) on the Guanzhuang–Xinhua Expressway, all 22 tunnels along the Guanzhuang–Xinhua Expressway have been holed through, laying a solid foundation for the project's opening to traffic by the end of the year.

The Guanzhuang–Xinhua Expressway is an important component of the G59 Hohhot–Beihai Expressway. The route starts at Muzhuopu in Guanzhuang Town, Yuanling County, connecting with the G59 Zhangjiajie–Guanzhuang Expressway, and ends at Shuikoukeng in Langtang Town, Xinhua County, linking with the Changsha–Zhijiang Expressway. The main line has a total length of 76.545 kilometers.

Bridges and tunnels account for 74% of the project, making it the construction project with the highest bridge-tunnel ratio, the greatest construction difficulty, and the highest safety risk in Hunan Province. The route has 22 tunnels in total, with a combined length of 52,905 meters (single tube), including 2 extra-long tunnels and 8 long tunnels. The project passes through the mountainous areas of central Hunan, where geological conditions are complex. Many tunnels exhibit phenomena such as fault fracturing, karst grooves, karst trenches, and karst caves. The rock is mainly sandy slate and argillaceous slate, which is prone to collapse and rockfall, swelling and weathering upon contact with water, and has a large proportion of weak surrounding rock, water and mud inrush, numerous fault fracture zones, and well-developed joints and fissures, among other prominent adverse geological phenomena. Tunnel construction faces difficulties such as challenging traffic organization, shallow cover and unbalanced pressure in local sections, and high disaster risk.

At present, construction of the Guanzhuang–Xinhua Expressway is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the project is scheduled to be completed and opened to traffic by the end of the year. Once completed, the project will connect the highway systems of Anhua with Huaihua, Loudi, Changde, and other places, achieving the goal of reaching the county seat within one hour from townships in the Anhua reservoir area, greatly alleviating the travel difficulties of 300,000 people in the reservoir area, and is of great significance for improving the national and Hunan provincial expressway networks, further improving transportation conditions in the Wuling Mountain area, developing regional tourism resources, and promoting economic and social development along the route.