Eastchong Tunnel of the China Hechi Railway Achieves Breakthrough on November 10
en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 10, the Dongchong Tunnel on the newly built Hefei-Chizhou Railway was successfully holed through, marking the first tunnel breakthrough on the entire Hechi Railway line. The line has a total length of approximately 199.5 kilometers and a design speed of 250 kilometers per hour, including about 117 kilometers of newly built track and approximately 82.5 kilometers utilizing the existing Hefei-Anqing high-speed railway. The entire line is planned to include 35 major and medium-sized bridges and 11 tunnels, with a bridge-to-tunnel ratio of approximately 89%, and is expected to be ready for operation by 2029.
The Hechi Railway is located within Anhui Province, starting from Hefei West Station in the north, passing through Feixi County and Lujiang County, then southward through Zongyang County of Tongling City, crossing the Yangtze River and connecting to Jiuhuashan Station in Chizhou City. The project is a construction project under the national "14th Five-Year Plan" railway development plan and an important component of the intercity railway network in the Yangtze River Delta region. Once completed, it will form a new high-speed railway corridor from Hefei to the southern Anhui region.
The line construction adopts a method of connecting existing railways with newly built sections. Specifically, the section from Hefei West Station to Lujiang West Station utilizes the existing Hefei-Anqing high-speed railway, while approximately 117 kilometers of new line will be built between Lujiang West Station and Jiuhuashan Station. The entire line has 7 stations: Hefei West, Feixi, Shucheng East, Lujiang West, Zongyang, Chizhou East, and Jiuhuashan, among which Zongyang Station and Chizhou East Station are newly built stations, and the rest are existing stations.
Tunnel engineering is an important component of the line construction for this project. The entire line is planned to include 11 tunnels along with 35 major and medium-sized bridges, with a relatively high proportion of bridge and tunnel engineering. Construction requires coordination of complex geological conditions, bridge-tunnel connections, and river-crossing engineering, among multiple construction tasks. The breakthrough of the Dongchong Tunnel marks the completion of the first tunnel breakthrough milestone on the entire line, and subsequent work remains to be advanced, including construction of other tunnels, bridges, subgrade engineering, and track engineering.
Another key project of the Hechi Railway is the Chizhou Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge. After crossing the Yangtze River, the line connects to the railway network within Chizhou City. The bridge engineering undertakes the task of building a railway river-crossing passage, which together with the approach bridges on both banks and line connection works forms the river-crossing transport corridor. The project also requires the completion of two new stations, Zongyang Station and Chizhou East Station, as well as related pre-station engineering.
According to the previously announced construction schedule, the Hechi Railway commenced construction in 2025 and is planned to be ready for operation by 2029. Once completed, the line will add a high-speed railway corridor in the southwestern Anhui region, connecting the Hefei metropolitan area with Chizhou, Tongling, and other areas along the route, and linking to the southern Yangtze River Delta railway network via the Chizhou-Huangshan high-speed railway.
The Hechi Railway will also connect with existing lines such as the Chizhou-Huangshan high-speed railway and the Hefei-Anqing high-speed railway, further improving the north-south railway corridor in Anhui. Upon completion of the project, Zongyang County will end its history of having no railway access, and rail travel conditions between Hefei and Chizhou as well as the southern Anhui region will be improved.
