On June 7, 2023, after more than 1300 days and nights of hard work, the left line of the Baiyashan Tunnel, a major construction project of the Zhuoni Cooperation Expressway on the Loess Plateau, was completed. So far, both the left and right lines of the super long tunnel on the expressway have been smoothly connected.

The Zhuohe Expressway has a total length of 121.308 kilometers and is an important component of the second horizontal highway network in Gansu Province. The project is connected to the Dingxi section of the cooperation expressway from Fengxian County in Shaanxi Province to Gannan Prefecture in Gansu Province. From east to west, it passes through Jonê County and Lintan County to Hezuo, and then connects with the proposed cooperation to Sailong section of Wuhai Maqin Expressway with a T-shaped hub.

The Baiyashan Tunnel, which runs through Tawa Village, Yangyong Town, Lintan County and Pocha Village, Kaerqin Town, Jonê County, is a separate super long tunnel. The left line is 3680m long, the right line is 3660m long, and the Height above mean sea level is 2776m. It is a key and difficult control project of Zhuohe Expressway Phase I. The tunnel site area is characterized by a stepped plateau loess hilly terrain, with high mountains and deep valleys, and a dense network of vertical and horizontal gullies. The line passes through the plateau loess silt and fissure zone, and the tunnel entrance is located in the landslide section of the mountain slope. The tunnel is surrounded by Grade IV and Grade V surrounding rocks, with developed rock joints and fissures, poor overall stability and stability. The consequences of various natural disasters are highly likely to occur, and the safety risk of tunnel excavation is high.

It is reported that in the face of construction difficulties such as the changing climate on the plateau, the construction party has established a scientific research research team to repeatedly demonstrate the special plan and develop various risk response measures one by one, ensuring the quality of the work process and the engineering quality with the quality of the process, ensuring comprehensive standardized construction and safe production, and achieving one-time optimization of the engineering quality. Editor/Xie Li