On August 6, the Zhoujiachong Tunnel of the Xiangyang-Jingmen Railway was holed through, marking another phased victory for a key control project on the entire line and laying a solid foundation for opening up the girder-erection work channel.

Project site

The Zhoujiachong Tunnel is located in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province. It is a single-tube double-track tunnel with a total length of 2,252 meters and a maximum burial depth of about 60 meters. It is the longest tunnel in this contract section and the necessary passage for girder transport, making it one of the control projects on the entire line. The geological conditions in the tunnel area are complex, with Grade IV and V surrounding rock accounting for as much as 89%. The tunnel is not only relatively shallow in burial depth but also contains seven fault fracture zones and strongly developed karst throughout, among other unfavorable geological conditions, resulting in great construction difficulty, many uncontrollable factors, and high construction risk.

Based on the characteristics and difficulties of tunnel construction, the project team prepared special construction plans. They not only fully applied methods such as controlled blasting, mechanical excavation, high-precision advanced geological forecasting, and monitoring measurement, but also installed intelligent systems including personnel positioning, video surveillance, full-section 3D scanners, and emergency alarms, greatly raising the level of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence in tunnel construction. To overcome the high-temperature environment inside the tunnel, the project team adopted measures such as reasonably arranging the timing of work procedures, using ice blocks to cool the tunnel, and ensuring logistical support, thereby guaranteeing safe and efficient construction under high-temperature weather.

The Xiangyang-Jingmen Railway starts in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province in the north and runs south through Yicheng City to Jingmen City. It is part of the Hohhot-Nanning Corridor, one of the main high-speed railway corridors of the "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" network in the medium- and long-term railway network plan. With a total length of 116.73 kilometers and a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, it will further improve the comprehensive transportation system of central Hubei and help boost the economic development of the Jianghan Plain after completion.