Builders from China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CREC4) have made new progress in digging the Tanjia Tunnel on a parallel expressway linking Chongqing Municipality and Hunan Province.
The Tanjia Tunnel Exit, located in Bajiao Village, Shiqiao Township under Chongqing’s Wulong District and built by CREC4 Sixth Engineering Co., Ltd, is a super-long tunnel, with the left line running for 4,999 meters long and the right line extending for 4,982 meters long.
With a total length of 280 kilometers, the Chongqing-Hunan Parallel Expressway is composed of three sections —Banan-Pengshui, Pengshui-Youyang and Wulong-Daozhen — and runs through five districts and counties of Banan, Nanchuan, Pengshui, Youyang and Wulong. With an investment of 64.6 billion yuan ($9.64 billion), it started construction in 2020, with a construction schedule of four to six years.
By July 25, the CREC4 builders have excavated over 1,400 meters of the tunnel, fulfilling some 35 percent of the whole project and laying a solid foundation for the future work. They have realized a business volume of over 100 million yuan.
“As the Tanjia Tunnel will pass through the Wujiang River reservation zone and faces harsh geological conditions, it has a high requirement on environmental protection and digging work. Following scientific planning, we have achieved progress in both work safety and excavation,” said Li Zheng, a manager of the project department of the No 3 Bid in the Wulong-Daozhen Section.
It has been learned that 80 percent of the Chongqing-Hunan Parallel Expressway are bridges and tunnels, making it one of the most difficult comprehensive undertakings in the history of Chongqing’s expressway construction. Among them, the Tanjia Tunnel is the most difficult project in the tunnel construction in the section from Wulong to Daozhen.
Upon completion and operation to traffic, the parallel expressway will help effectively alleviate the congestion of the current Chongqing-Hunan Expressway, open up local tourism resources along the route and boost the diversity and mutual exchanges of the local economies.