With the large-scale exploitation of urban underground space represented by metro, and the great development in transportation infrastructure represented by high-speed railway, the construction scale and difficulty of various types of underground projects are evolving rapidly at an unprecedented speed. Considering the broad prospects of underground engineering, with the support of the leaders of the College of Civil Engineering, the Department of Rail and Underground Engineering was established in 2009 to undertake the teaching of all subject area requisites and some general subject foundation requisites for the underground engineering direction of civil engineering program.

There are 9 full-time teachers in the Department, including 3 with senior titles: Prof. Deng Tao (deputy dean of the College of Civil Engineering), Prof. Guan Zhenchang (dean of the Department) and Prof. Huang Ming (deputy dean of the Department); 2 with vice-senior titles: Research Associate Zheng Lu and Assoc. Prof. Cao Yang; 4 with intermediate titles: Lecturer Yan Xiaobo, Lecturer Miao Yuanbing, Lecturer Zheng Jixin, and Research Assistant Wu Xuezhen. In the past five years, the Department has undertaken 4 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 8 government-sponsored projects at the provincial and ministerial levels, and more than 30 enterprise-sponsored scientific research projects, with a cumulative scientific research fund of CNY 12 million granted; over 100 high-quality academic papers were published and over 10 national invention patents were granted; 1 course was selected into National Excellent Online Open Courses, 2 provincial and ministerial scientific research awards and 3 scientific research awards from societies/associations were granted.

Over 30 students majoring in civil engineering are enrolled into the Department every year, and receive fine teaching and training under a small class system; in the past eight years, nearly 250 outstanding undergraduate graduates have been trained, and most of them are engaged in design, construction, management and scientific research in municipal subway engineering, highway and railway transportation or other industries.