On April 29, the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment issued the "Reply to the Environmental Impact Report on the Reconstruction of Railway Zhangqiao to Hezhai Section of Baoxi Railway and the construction of additional Line 3 and 4", and the project environmental impact assessment was officially approved. The project is a key construction project of the National Railway Group's "reinforcing network and strong chain" in 2023, and is expected to officially start construction within the year.

Baoxi Railway is one of the national strategic transportation channels for coal from north to south, mainly responsible for cargo exchanges between Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi and Southwest, East China, Central and other regions, as well as the operation of some long-distance pu-speed buses and the Green Giant intercity EMU in the urban agglomeration.

Zhangqiao to Hezhai section is the key section connecting the upstream and downstream of Baoxi Railway, and the northern end connects Baoxi, Ganzhong, Houxi and other railway trunk lines. The construction of the third and fourth lines is of great significance to eliminate the transportation bottleneck of Xi 'an Hub and smooth the north-south freight channel of Xi 'an Hub, especially the outbound coal transport channel.

The project line starts from Zhangqiao Station in the north, passes through Fuping County of Weinan City, Yanliang District of Xi 'an City, Lintong District of Xi 'an City, crosses Weihe River to the south, and finally leads to Hezhai Station.

This project is a freight railway, traction mode is electric traction, operating speed of 100 to 120 km/h. Nine new extra-large Bridges, the main line project to build a total length of 34.43 kilometers, supporting reconstruction projects including Zhangqiao, He Zhai and Guanshan station three existing stations, Longtai link line, He zero down link line, Houxi line and the new Weihe River three extra-large bridge, a total length of 11.65 kilometers (single line).

This project will demolish the Weihe River Bridge on the upstream line of the existing Baoxi Railway and build a new Weihe River Bridge 30 meters downstream of the downstream line of the existing Baoxi Railway to cross the Weihe River wetland in Shaanxi province in the form of a three-line bridge. The total investment of the project is 3.836 billion yuan, and the environmental protection investment is 149 million yuan, accounting for 3.90% of the total investment of the project.

After examination, the project can be alleviated and controlled under the condition that the ecological protection and pollution prevention measures proposed in the environmental impact report are fully implemented. My Office agrees in principle with the overall conclusions of the environmental impact assessment of the project and various ecological environmental protection measures. Editor/Xu Shengpeng