On August 16, the Helan Mountain Tunnel of the Yinchuan-Bayanhot branch of the Baotou-Yinchuan High Speed Railway was successfully completed, marking the breakthrough of the first railway tunnel crossing the Helan Mountains in China.

　　The Baotou-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway is an important part of the national "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network. The Yinchuan-Bayanhot branch starts in Yinchuan city of Ningxia province and ends in Alxa league of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with a total length of about 111 kilometers. The Helan Mountain Tunnel is the key and most challenging control project of the branch line.

　　According to Han Wei, project manager of the Helan Mountain Tunnel from China Railway 15th Bureau, the newly completed tunnel has a total length of 8,792 meters. It is located at the junction of Alxa Left Banner in Inner Mongolia and Yinchuan in Ningxia, as well as the boundary between the Tengger Desert and the Yellow River Basin. It passes through the Helan Mountain National Nature Reserve, where the ecological environment is sensitive and fragile and the geological conditions are extremely complex. The tunnel has a maximum depth of more than 230 meters. During construction, it had to pass beneath the Ming Great Wall and six fractured fault zones, with high risks of water inrush and collapse. To minimize disturbance to the Ming Great Wall, the construction team replaced the traditional drill-and-blast method with a low-disturbance combination of mechanical excavation, C6 drilling rigs and dynamic monitoring. This ensured efficient and high-quality tunneling while strengthening the protection of ancient heritage sites.

　　Once completed and put into operation, the Yinchuan-Bayanhot branch will further enhance the railway network in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, improve inter-regional connectivity, promote ecological protection and coordinated economic development along the route, and inject new momentum into the region’ s high-quality social and economic development.