At 9:00 on 1 September 2016, the first set of 500-metre long rail was laid on the track slab on Hanjiang River Grand Bridge of Xi’an-Chengdu PDL (passenger-dedicated line), marking the official launch of track laying for Shaanxi Section of the PDL.

Engineering tasks for the section includes track-laying for 670-kilometre main line and 14.24-kilometre station tracks, and laying of 36 sets of turnouts. Tracks will be laid in 32 tunnels, including Qinling Tianhuashan Double-Track Tunnel, currently the longest high-speed railway double-track tunnel in Asia. Also, tracks will be laid on a 61.53-kilometre continuous downgrade with a gradient of 25‰. Track-laying for the section is therefore extremely difficult.

(Source: Chinese Railways)