On July 16, the Baijiling Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the newly built Jieyang-Huilai Railway (hereinafter referred to as the "Jiehui Railway"), has been excavated to 8,927 meters, with over 90 percent of the work completed, laying a solid foundation for the project to be completed and opened to traffic by the end of 2025 and to launch passenger and freight services.

Exterior view of the Baijiling Tunnel

The Jiehui Railway has a main line length of approximately 88.5 kilometers. It is a dual-purpose passenger and freight railway with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour. The line starts from Jieyang Station on the Meizhou-Shantou Railway, passes through Jiedong District, Jieyang Industrial Park, Jiexi County, Puning City, and Huilai County, and ends at Huilai Station on the Shantou-Shanwei Railway. The pre-station Section 1 undertaken by China Railway 25th Bureau Group is about 11.18 kilometers long, with a bridge-tunnel ratio of 99.57 percent. The Baijiling Tunnel is the controlling project of the entire line, with a total length of 9,815 meters.

According to the project manager, the entrance, exit, and auxiliary passages of the Baijiling Tunnel successively pass through geological fault zones and weak surrounding rock zones, posing risks such as collapse and water inflow, and the safety construction risk is extremely high.

To this end, the project team, with refined management as the starting point, established and improved a construction management system that allows pre-control and traceability. During construction, the builders ensured construction safety through measures such as advanced small pipes, increased frequency of surrounding rock measurement, and shortened construction cycle advance. They also used image data such as traceability tables and concealed work acceptance to promptly identify safety and quality hazards in tunnel construction, achieving early detection and early resolution.

In addition, the project team actively carried out research on topics such as ventilation technology for long shaft construction with steep slopes and sharp turns, and full-process control of secondary lining concrete. They assigned responsibilities for construction progress, materials and equipment, and excavation progress to specific individuals, comprehensively improving comprehensive management capabilities such as safety, quality, and efficiency, and safeguarding the project's construction and production.

It is reported that the Jiehui Railway is a key project in Guangdong Province's 14th Five-Year Plan. Construction of the entire line started in November 2021, with a construction period of four years. After the project is completed and opened, it will connect with the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway, Meizhou-Shantou Railway, Shantou-Shanwei Railway, Yingtan-Meizhou Railway, and Pucheng-Meizhou Railway, further meeting the collection and distribution needs of the Jieyang port area, greatly improving port service quality, and driving the clustering of port-adjacent industries and regional port economic development. At the same time, it is of great significance for improving the construction of the interconnected intercity railway network in eastern Guangdong, promoting deep integration and development of surrounding areas, and achieving high-quality development in areas along the line.