As the pace of China's infrastructure accelerates, we are not only paving roads on land, but also weaving new corridors beneath the deep sea. At 10 o'clock in the morning today (23rd), with the completion of the pouring of the last concrete form, the construction of the Ningbo side shield working well of the Jintang submarine tunnel of the Yongzhou Railway undertaken by China Railway 14th Bureau Group was completed, which marked the foundation for the world's longest submarine high-speed rail tunnel shield machine to start crossing the sea.
The shield working shaft is one of the important facilities in the shield tunnel project, which is not only the hoisting channel for the subsequent assembly of the shield machine parts, but also the material transportation channel during the construction period of the shield machine. The Ningbo side shield working well is 22.6 meters long, 21.1 meters wide and 58.13 meters deep, consisting of 9 underground layers, equivalent to 20 floors high, and is currently the deepest super-large diameter shield working well in China.
The Jintang Submarine Tunnel of Yongzhou Railway starts from Beilun District of Ningbo City in the west to Jintang Town of Zhoushan City in the east, with a total length of 16.18 kilometers, of which the shield section is 11.21 kilometers long, which is currently the longest submarine tunnel in the world, with the most complex geological conditions and the most difficult construction. The tunnel plans to use two 14.57-meter ultra-large diameter shield machines to excavate from both ends of Ningbo and Zhoushan in opposite directions, and finally achieve accurate docking on the seabed with an error of no more than 20 mm.
This mega project is not only a new milestone in China's infrastructure construction, but also a huge breakthrough in human engineering technology. It will change the way people travel, shorten the distance between cities, and will also drive the economic development of the regions along the route. We look forward to the early opening of the Jintang Cross Harbour Tunnel, which will bring people a more convenient and faster undersea transportation experience.