As of now，to some extent most of existing thermal insulation measures are dependent of experiences in absence of relevant technical support，typically involving serious issue associated with frost damage of tunnel structure. To predict frost damage of tunnel，by surveying 156 tunnels subject to frost damage，we found the tunnels in cold region can be preliminarily classified into two groups：the tunnel at high latitude as well as the tunnel at high altitude. According to both of the average temperature in the coldest month and the frozen depth，tunnels were further subdivided into 5 sub-regions where thermal insulation and drainage technologies of tunnel were discussed. Probing into the results reveals that the method of thermal insulation layer is well applicable to the region where the average temperature in the coldest month ranges from －5 ℃ to －15 ℃. For region with average temperature in the coldest month below －15 ℃，other active insulation measures should employed at the section where surface temperature of the secondary lining exposes below －15 ℃. When the surface temperature of secondary lining rises to 0 ℃，thermal insulation ditch and central deep drain together with cold protection drain tunnel can be ignored. Moreover，combining drainage technology outside the tunnel and insulation measures is capable of helping facilitate ideal drainage effect in these observed scenarios. Finally，this paper concludes that the prevention principle of frost damage for tunnel in cold region is：“construction quality is the foundation；drainage is the core，and insulation is the key，the interaction of which should be considered simultaneously for a specific tunnel”.