Starting operation on December 30, 2019, with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Intercity Railway is an important infrastructure project that connects the two host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympics as well as China’s first HSR equipped with Chinese-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.

　　China’s First Smart HSR
As China’s first smart HSR, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou rail line used the big data technology in the process of the profile design, supply and quality control of steel rails and a “health record” was established to monitor the performance of each rail. Landscape design was conducted for roadbeds, bridges, tunnels and other sites of the intercity railway. A three-dimensional, multi-layered green belt has taken shape with bushes planted on the lower, inner edge and trees in the higher, outer space along the rail.

　　Intelligent Construction of Qinghuayuan Tunnel
To build the Qinghuayuan Tunnel, two earth pressure balance (EPB) shields were jointly developed by the constructors according to local geological conditions. With the help of China’s first intelligent control center for large-diameter shield machines, a number of advanced technologies, such as building information modeling, three-dimensional visualized monitoring, cloud command platform, and automated monitoring and measurement, were implemented and realized intelligent simulation, precise prediction, early warning, and real-time correction, which helped overcome challenges in shield launch and reception for ultra-shallow buried tunnel and tunnel boring by important buildings at a ultra-close range.

　　China’s First Closed Noise Barrier
The noise barrier built for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR is China’s first closed barrier with a concrete frame. Completed on May 21, 2019, the 2.43-kilometer-long barrier was installed along the section near the campus of Tsinghua University and its surrounding residential areas. The cast-in-place concrete frame of the barrier was built to better withstand exposure to ultraviolet light and acid corrosion and thus lower the maintenance costs. Elements of the old Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway, such as gray bricks and arch windows in the traditional style of the gateway of Qinghuayuan Station, were blended into the decoration of the exterior walls of the barrier.