Insurance in construction is an advanced risk transfer method. Largescale railway projects tend to involve big investment, complex technology and long construction periods and tend to affect wide areas. The complexity of the geological conditions and the uncertainty of the surrounding environment increase the risks involved as well as the demand on technology, which results in challenges to the safety risk management of the project. In this paper, the application of insurance in the construction of a section of the Guiyang—Guangzhou highspeed railway is studied. It demonstrates how risks in construction safety can be kept to the minimum, thus achieving the purposes of reducing damages, lowering costs and improving efficiency. The functions of the project insurance are summarized and six items of proposal are made. The aim of the paper is to bring the risks of largescale railway projects under effective control, to improve the risk transfer efficiency and, ultimately, to minimize any economic loss. 