Xinhua All Media+| 9 years of hard work! The construction of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel on the Yunnan Tibet Railway has been completed. Railway | Tunnel | Snow Mountain
On the morning of July 8th, construction workers from China Railway 16th Bureau worked tirelessly day and night to pour concrete. The final section of the ballastless track bed of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel was completed, marking the completion of the last tunnel construction of the Lijiang Shangri La section of the Yunnan Tibet Railway after 9 years of arduous construction. At this point, the construction of all 20 tunnels in the Lixiang section has been completed, and it has entered the stage of long track laying, creating favorable conditions for opening and operation within the year.
"The completion of the construction of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel represents a significant breakthrough in the construction of complex geological tunnels on the plateau in China, and has accumulated valuable experience for the future construction of similar tunnels." said Chen Yingwu, Deputy Commander of the Yunnan West Railway Construction Command of China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd.
The Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel is located in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, with a total length of 9.5 kilometers and a maximum burial depth of 1155 meters. It is a first-class high-risk tunnel and a key and difficult control project along the entire line. The tunnel is located on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, with obvious geological features in the middle section of the Hengduan Mountains and deep mountain canyons. It is affected by high ground stress, plate tectonic compression, and fault zone activity, and geological problems such as large deformation of soft rock are extremely prominent during the construction process.
On July 8th, the construction of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel in the Lixiang section of the Yunnan Tibet Railway was completed.
![Xinhua All Media+| 9 years of hard work! The construction of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel on the Yunnan Tibet Railway has been completed. Railway | Tunnel | Snow Mountain](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/4bff4cea0d7b151bf49b5f859ce3f13c.jpg)
"A tunnel less than 10 kilometers long takes only 3 minutes for high-speed trains to pass through, but since construction began in 2014, builders have been working here for 9 years." Lin Ke, Chief Engineer of the Lixiang Railway Project Department of China Railway 16th Bureau, explained that due to high ground stress and weak surrounding rocks, tunnel construction is very difficult.
In order to overcome the construction difficulties of large deformation in soft rock, the Yunnan West Railway Construction Command of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. organized participating units to actively summarize construction experience, optimize process methods, collaborate with universities and institutes to carry out scientific research and research, invite academicians and experts to go deep into the tunnel for "pulse diagnosis", and finally adopt a construction plan that releases ground stress through the advanced middle guide tunnel, expands the excavation to the main tunnel, and strengthens the support of the main tunnel, promoting the orderly progress of tunnel construction.
On July 8th, builders carried out ballastless track bed construction in the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel of the Lixiang section of the Yunnan Tibet Railway.
Chen Yingwu told reporters that prioritizing the excavation of the middle guide tunnel and effectively releasing ground stress refers to digging a hole slightly smaller than the normal section at the main tunnel position, allowing the ground stress to be released before expanding to the main tunnel section. A typical tunnel only requires one layer of initial support, while the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel uses three layers of initial support, along with a 108mm diameter large locking foot anchor pipe. A 76mm tensile anchor pipe is added at the bottom of the tunnel, three-dimensional steel bars are added inside the inverted arch filling, and a 60mm buffer layer is added between the initial support and the secondary lining to ensure safe tunnel excavation.
![Xinhua All Media+| 9 years of hard work! The construction of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel on the Yunnan Tibet Railway has been completed. Railway | Tunnel | Snow Mountain](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/7c03169a703c4eb029bd5981b7c478ec.jpg)
During the construction process of the Haba Snow Mountain Tunnel, China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. organized various participating parties to conduct a large amount of scheme research and exploration practice, forming a set of large deformation control technology measures, obtaining 17 national utility model patents and invention patents, and obtaining multiple provincial-level construction methods, providing extremely beneficial practical exploration and technical experience for the construction of China's plateau railways, and filling the gap in the construction field of plateau tunnels in China.
The Lijiang to Shangri La section of the Yunnan Tibet Railway is located in the northwest of Yunnan Province, connecting Lijiang City and Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is an important component of the Yunnan Tibet Railway in China's Medium - and Long Term Railway Network Plan. It starts from Lijiang Station, passes through Hutiaoxia and Xiaozhongdian Town to Shangri La, with a total length of 139.7 kilometers and a designed driving speed of 140 kilometers per hour. There are four stations along the entire line, including Lijiang Station, Lashihai Station, Xiaozhongdian Station, and Shangri La Station. After its completion and opening to traffic, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province will end its history of no railway access and fill the gaps in railway network and transportation services in the northwest region of Yunnan.