350 kilometers per hour! This high-speed railway will cross the Qinling Mountains

Recently, the Lijiashan Tunnel of the Xi'an-Ankang High-speed Railway was successfully completed , laying a solid foundation for subsequent project construction.

3 hours → 1 hour!

Lijiashan Tunnel of Xikang High-speed Railway is located in Renhekou Town, Xunyang City, with a total length of 2,878 meters and a maximum buried depth of 312 meters. The tunnel passes through a mountainous area with steep mountains, extremely inconvenient transportation, poor surrounding rock grade, and risks such as dangerous rock falls in the unfavorable geological section. The safety risk is high, and the heavy rainfall and long flood season in southern Shaanxi make construction very difficult.

To ensure the early completion of the tunnel, the construction unit, Xi'an-Chengdu Passenger Dedicated Line Shaanxi Company, paid close attention to the safety of construction operations, strengthened technical briefings, and guided the construction units to strictly implement the construction plan of "advanced pipe, strict grouting, short excavation, strong support, early closure, and frequent measurement" to ensure the project was opened on schedule.

The picture shows workers from China Railway Seventh Bureau Group working on the excavation surface in the 13.3-kilometer Jiutianshan Tunnel of the Xikang High-speed Railway in Qinling Mountains on January 26, 2024.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Rui

The new main line of Xi'an-Ankang high-speed railway is 170.854 kilometers long, of which the total length of bridges and tunnels is 161.310 kilometers, with 20 tunnels and 26 bridges. So far, 5 tunnels have been completed, with 102,388.57 meters of tunnels completed, 64.46% of the design completed. The bridges have 10,137 meters of bridges completed, 52.26% of the design completed. After the completion and opening of the Xikang high-speed railway, the fastest train running time from Xi'an to Ankang will be shortened from about 3 hours to less than 1 hour.

It is understood that the Xikang High-speed Railway is an important part of my country's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network, including the Baoji (Yin) Hai Channel and the Beijing-Kunming Channel. The new main line is about 171 kilometers long with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour. The line starts from the south end of the planned Xi'an East Station, crosses the Chan River, passes through the Qinling Mountains, passes through Zhashui, Zhen'an, and Xunyang, and connects to the planned Ankang West Station.

After the completion and opening of the Xikang High-speed Railway, the time and space distance between the Guanzhong urban agglomeration and the Qinba Mountain Area in southern Shaanxi will be greatly shortened, which is of great significance for meeting the transportation needs between Guanzhong and southern Shaanxi and promoting economic and social development along the line.

Comprehensive sources: Xinhuanet, China Railway, Xi'an Release, etc.