The Slender West Lake Tunnel, a Double-layer Shield Tunnel with the World's Largest Diameter, Opens to Traffic on Sept 19, 2014

The Slender West Lake Tunnel, the largest-diameter double-layer shield tunnel in the world, opens to traffic on Sept 19, 2014. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The Slender West Lake Tunnel, a double-layer shield tunnel with the world's largest diameter, opens to traffic on Sept 19, 2014

The Slender West Lake Tunnel, a double-layer shield tunnel with the largest diameter of its kind in the world, opened to traffic on Sept 19, 2014.

Designed and contracted by China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, the 3.6-kilometer two-way four-lane tunnel is also the world's longest-spanned single cavern double-layer highway tunnel.

A tunnel boring machine (TBM) with a super large 14.93-meter diameter cross section was used during construction.

The tunnel, an East-to-West axis line in ancient Yangzhou city of East China's Jiangsu Province, goes under the core area of the Slender West Lake scenic spot.

It greatly relieved traffic pressure around the scenic spot and shortened travel time between it and the Song Jiacheng Archaeological Site Park to three minutes from the previous thirty.

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)