On June 14, 2026, it was learned from China Railway Construction Corporation Limited that the Pingluo Tunnel, a key control project of the Tianshui–Longnan Railway undertaken by China Railway 15th Bureau, has been successfully holed through, marking major phased progress in the railway's construction.

The Tianshui–Longnan Railway is 208 kilometers long, with a bridge-to-tunnel ratio of nearly 90%. Of this, 163 kilometers run through the heart of the Qinling Mountains, and another 24 kilometers are built on viaducts above deep valleys. The line crosses the Qinling Mountains twice, with a maximum elevation difference of more than 1,200 meters. What these figures mean on the ground is extremely poor surrounding rock grades, with very few sections suitable for stable support. Most tunnel faces confront Grade IV and V fractured surrounding rock—workers are effectively boring holes through a "shortbread." Underground rivers crisscross the area, and water inflow at the tunnel face can rise to knee or waist depth. Rock strata swell on contact with water, and support deformation is measured in centimeters.

This is the first railway project in Gansu Province to be fully funded and independently built by the province. That status itself embodies a hidden pain in the history of transportation in western China.

For a long time, southeastern Gansu has been trapped in a situation of strong corridors but weak connections. The straight-line distance from Tianshui to Longnan is only about 100 kilometers, yet travelers must detour via Baoji or Lanzhou, often spending half a day. Between Mianyang and Pingwu in northern Sichuan and Longnan and Wenxian in Gansu, the straight-line distance is less than 250 kilometers, but travel time exceeds 5 hours. When geological disasters occur frequently, transport is often bottlenecked.

The ambition of the Tianshui–Longnan Railway is to open up this straight line that geography has folded away. With a design speed of 160 km/h and capacity for both passenger and freight traffic, it starts in the north at Sanyangchuan–Yangjianian Station area in the Tianshui section of the Longhai Railway, runs south through Niangniangba in Maiji District into Longnan, extends via Huixian and Chengxian to Wudu District, and connects to Longnan West Station on the Lanzhou–Chongqing Railway. In the long term, its freight capacity is projected at 17 million tons.

On January 25, 2026, the Majie Tunnel was holed through. With a total length of 12.4 kilometers, it took more than 1,200 days. Its maximum burial depth is 1,160 meters, while the minimum is only 31.6 meters. High ground stress, large deformation, asymmetric loading, and settlement—the risks were thoroughly intertwined. The construction team adopted the strategy of "long tunnel, short excavation," using two inclined shafts and one cross adit, with six working faces advancing simultaneously at peak.

As of June 2026, excavation of the inlet section of the Anhua Tunnel has entered its final sprint, with the 7.1-kilometer working face approaching the breakthrough point. The tunnel is 19.98 kilometers long, the longest on the entire line. The 7.163-kilometer inlet section undertaken by China Railway 16th Bureau must pass through fractured geological zones with high water inflow and dense hidden hazards. Using geological radar and advanced drilling, and relying on precise construction with "one policy per site, one optimization per section," the team has compressed unpredictable geological risks into a controllable range.

The Wujialiang Tunnel, 6.7 kilometers long in total, has only the last few hundred meters left unbroken and is scheduled for full breakthrough in August of the same year.

The New Maijishan Tunnel, with a total length of 19,818 meters, must cross landslide zones, mud and water inrush areas, and fault fracture zones, and it also runs adjacent to a national nature reserve and a Grade I water source protection area. China Railway 2nd Bureau established a space-ground integrated high-precision control network of "BeiDou navigation system + ground GNSS reference stations + precise traverse network," accurately importing coordinate and elevation data into the underground working faces.

As of May 2026, tunnel excavation and support had completed 90,265 meters, invert works 89,303 meters, and lining 75,005 meters; bridge pile foundations had completed 1,991 piles, and subgrade earth and rock works 4.72 million cubic meters.