On May 20, news came from Shudao Group's Zanggao Yakang (Lushi) Company that after 1,205 days of construction, the Wanggangping Tunnel on the Luding-to-Shimian Expressway (hereinafter referred to as the "Lushi Expressway") has achieved double-tube breakthrough, laying a solid foundation for the 33-kilometer section from the Wanggangping Interchange to the Dashanshu Hub Interchange (i.e., the Shimian section of the Lushi Expressway) to be completed and opened to traffic by the end of this year.

The Wanggangping Extra-Long Tunnel is an important extra-long tunnel on the Lushi Expressway, with a total length of 3,613 meters, and official tunnel excavation began on February 1, 2021. The slopes on both sides of the tunnel are high and steep; the entrance end is located beneath a cluster of dangerous rocks, and the exit end is a steep slope and sheer cliff, with no construction platform for tunnel entry. After optimizing the plan, all parties involved in the project built a steel temporary bridge and, after constructing a retaining wall at the foot of the slope, filled in a construction platform nearly 20 meters high, ensuring smooth tunnel entry for construction.

During construction, in response to the reality of frequent geological disasters, Shudao Group's Zanggao Yakang (Lushi) Company, on the one hand, adopted advanced equipment such as wet spraying manipulators and intelligent arch trolleys to reduce the number of workers at the tunnel face; on the other hand, by adding safety protection facilities such as steel shed tunnels and active and passive protection nets, and introducing mechanized construction equipment and digital safety monitoring equipment, it achieved "mechanized and information-based" operations.

"We adopted a combination of 'human defense + technical defense' to achieve coordinated progress in safety, quality, and schedule," introduced Peng Zhen, deputy director of the Shimian Representative Office of Shudao Group's Zanggao Yakang (Lushi) Company. The project team used remote sensing technology to carry out geological disaster identification and special hazard inspections along the route, set up a Beidou geological disaster monitoring system and rainfall monitoring and alarm devices, and also arranged dedicated personnel for 24-hour patrols during special periods such as nighttime and in special sections such as high and steep slope valleys, jointly forming all-weather online monitoring and early warning to ensure the project achieves its construction schedule targets on time.

The Lushi Expressway is an important connecting corridor linking the two major transportation arteries of western Sichuan, the Yakang and Yaxi expressways. It starts in Luding County, Ganzi Prefecture, and ends in Shimian County, Ya'an City, with a total length of about 97 kilometers, a bridge-to-tunnel ratio as high as 86.5%, and tunnels accounting for as much as 69%. It runs parallel and close to multiple regional active major fault zones, making construction extremely difficult. After the project is completed and opened to traffic, the drive from Luding to Shimian will be shortened from the current 3 hours to 1 hour. At that time, it will also form the second expressway corridor into and out of Ganzi Prefecture, and Chengdu to Hailuogou Scenic Area will be accessible by expressway all the way.