The West Chongqing Railway has a total length of 739 kilometers, with the Wangjiatang Tunnel located in Guang'an City, Sichuan Province. This tunnel stretches for 2,317 meters and is constructed by China Railway Fifth Bureau. During the construction process, many difficulties were encountered, including toxic and harmful gases, water inflow, and soft soil geological issues. Additionally, it had to pass through water supply and gas pipelines, highways, high-voltage power lines, and residential areas. To protect the provincial cultural relics and local drinking water sources at the entrance of the tunnel, the engineering team designed a 292-meter adit to expedite the construction progress.
The LanHi Multifunctional Tunneling Machine is a specialized equipment used for non-explosive tunnel excavation. It primarily utilizes high-frequency hammers or breakers to impact and break rocks, bucket teeth or rod wedges to pry rocks in the surrounding rock, and leverage the gravity beneath the surrounding rock to automatically break rocks (high-frequency hammers mainly target rocks below 40MPa; harder and poorly developed rocks use breaker hammers for construction). It adopts local control and wireless remote control methods and can adapt to tunnel excavation ranging from 6 to 9.5 meters in diameter. It integrates functions such as high-frequency rock breaking, rapid excavation in soft soil, profile trimming, and dust suppression spraying, suitable for construction in areas where blasting is restricted (such as airports, residential areas, and wildlife reserves), exhibiting strong adaptability, and meeting various types of surrounding rock construction requirements while minimizing issues such as over-excavation, under-excavation, and collapse.
In early August 2023, the adit of the Wangjiatang Tunnel of the West Chongqing Railway was successfully connected. This signifies a new stage in the construction of the tunnel, with the additional excavation face accelerating the construction progress.