On July 30, the "Wenquan" hard rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) began excavation on the Moxun Mountain Tunnel of the G219 Wenquan–Horgos Highway project.

Construction workers inspect the TBM equipment inside the parallel pilot tunnel.

That day, inside the parallel pilot tunnel of the Moxun Mountain Tunnel, the cutterhead of the "Wenquan" TBM slowly rotated, colliding with the rock and producing repeated crunching sounds.

According to reports, the Moxun Mountain Tunnel is a controlling project of the Wenquan–Horgos Highway. At 9,300 meters long, it is currently Xinjiang's longest single-tube bidirectional highway tunnel. It adopts a "main tunnel + parallel pilot tunnel" construction method: the parallel pilot tunnel is used with a TBM for rapid excavation, and cross passages are added to access the main tunnel, creating multiple working faces and thereby achieving "long tunnel, short construction" and rapid tunnel breakthrough.

The "Wenquan" TBM has a total length of 235 meters, weighs 1,500 tons, and has a cutterhead diameter of 8.73 meters. It is equipped with advanced systems such as an expandable cutterhead, multi-level multi-point grouting, microseismic monitoring, and high-performance drainage, and features high safety and stability and fast excavation speed.

With the "Wenquan" TBM beginning excavation, construction of the Wenquan–Horgos Highway has entered an "acceleration phase," providing greater assurance for the project's completion on schedule.

The Wenquan–Horgos Highway is an important component of the G219 route, with a total length of 168.613 kilometers. It starts on the south side of Wenquan County and ends in Horgos City, and is planned for completion in 2027. The project is one of the major projects in China's 14th Five-Year Plan and an important section of Xinjiang's "Thousand-Mile Scenic Corridor." The route is rich in natural and cultural landscapes along the way, and once completed it will become another popular tourist highway traversing the northern Tianshan Mountains after the Duku Highway and the Yizhao Highway.