On January 19, at the construction site of the Xuetangbao Tunnel on the Wanzhou Shugang Avenue in Chongqing, this marked a key milestone in the Wanzhou Shugang Avenue widening project, laying a solid foundation for enhancing the collection and distribution capacity of Xintian Port.

The Wanzhou Shugang Avenue widening project is located in Xintianyuan of the Wanzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone and involves widening and upgrading the existing Shugang Avenue. The widened road has a total length of 5.4 km, expanded from two lanes in each direction to five lanes in each direction, with a standard road width of 32 m. As the controlling works of the project, the Xuetangbao Tunnel has a total length of 852 m and consists of a newly built one-way three-lane tunnel on the south side of the existing Xuetangbao Tunnel.

Since construction began in April 2022, the project department of the Wanzhou Shugang Avenue widening project has carried out scientific planning and advanced steadily, overcoming construction difficulties such as proximity to the existing tunnel and the broken, collapse-prone shallow rock mass at the entrance and exit sections. Through the scientific application of innovative mechanical excavation technology, they not only ensured zero accidents and zero casualties throughout the construction process, but also completed the Xuetangbao Tunnel breakthrough milestone 60 days ahead of schedule, securing favorable timing for the full completion of the Wanzhou Shugang Avenue widening project.

Shugang Avenue is a freight collection and distribution corridor linking the main functional clusters of Xintian Park with expressway interchanges, railway freight stations, and port operation areas. Its widening and upgrading will greatly enhance the park's collection and distribution capacity. In particular, the completion of the Xuetangbao Tunnel will further shorten distances between functional areas, enable rapid connections between major freight generation points and external transport corridors, enhance Xintian Port's rail-road-water intermodal transport support capacity, promote the rapid development of port-side industries, advance the construction of Xintian Port as a hub port for the central and western regions—serving as an eastern outlet for Sichuan and Chongqing and a southward route for Gansu and Shaanxi—help Wanzhou better integrate into and serve the overall development framework, and drive the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the Western Region.