On December 20, the Yu-E Boundary to Jianshi Section of the Anlai Expressway, invested and constructed by Hubei Communications Investment Group, was basically completed, and the first section successfully passed the completion acceptance.

The Anlai Expressway has a total length of approximately 446 kilometers, starting from Ankang in Shaanxi in the north and ending at Laifeng in Hubei in the south. The Jianshi North Project is located in Changliang Town, Jianshi County, Enshi Prefecture, with a route length of 10.5 kilometers. It starts at the Yu-E boundary of the Fengjian Tunnel, connects to the Chongqing Fengjie to Wushan section in the north, and links to the Jianshi to Enshi section in the south. The total investment of the project is 1.83 billion yuan, and the bridge-tunnel ratio is as high as 80%.

Previously, about 158 kilometers of the Hubei section of the Anlai Expressway, namely the Enlai and Jian'en expressways, had been completed and opened to traffic. The Yu-E Boundary to Jianshi Section project started construction on July 22, 2022.

The 12.36-kilometer Fengjian Tunnel is a joint project between Hubei and Chongqing. To ensure efficient connection and smooth progress of the projects in the two provinces, Hubei Communications Investment Group designated the 1.8-kilometer Hubei section of the Fengjian Tunnel as an independent contract section, constructed by the same contractor as the Chongqing section. After completion, the Hubei section will serve as a construction passage for the Chongqing side to continue tunneling northward. The tunnel is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

After exiting the Fengjian Tunnel, the project winds southward through the deep gorges of Wushan. The beam fabrication yard is located on the mainline subgrade and requires cut-and-fill construction. The upper and lower slopes are as high as 80 to 90 meters, equivalent to a 30-story building, making each excavation like "dancing on the tip of a knife." The construction team adopted a strategy of "excavating level by level, protecting level by level, excavating one level and greening one level," embedding more than 10-meter-long anchor rods into the mountain and covering them with anchor rod frame beams to "fasten a safety belt" for the mountain. For the lower slope, because the retaining wall foundation could not reach the bedrock, the plan was changed to first install anti-slide piles, set cross beams on top of the piles, and build the retaining wall on the cross beams. The optimization and adjustment of this plan won the initiative for the beam yard construction.

"Prioritizing the construction of water-crossing piles" is another "preemptive move" in project management. The project has dozens of pile foundations for river-crossing bridges along the entire line, posing challenges such as difficult coordination and technical issues, as well as high environmental and flood control standards. The team planned ahead and organized scientifically, completing the water-crossing pile foundation construction with high quality.

The construction of the Heping Grand Bridge pushes the challenge of building bridges along rivers in deep mountains to the extreme. The middle section of the right carriageway of the bridge passes through a steep slope in the form of a "half-bridge, half-road," with the subgrade slope reaching 40 to 50 degrees. The team decided to complete the anti-slide pile construction before excavating the subgrade. They innovatively adopted the "relay transfer" method, in which loaders climb to a feasible height, carve out temporary platforms to stack materials, and then excavators transfer them again; steel bars were carried one by one by mules and horses. It took a full year to complete the 24 anti-slide piles.

The complex terrain and geological conditions along the project, coupled with frequent rain in the mountainous area, make it highly prone to landslides, collapses, and other disasters. Exi Construction Company has explored a series of new ideas and measures for risk prevention and control, accumulating valuable experience for expressway construction in mountainous areas.