CSCEC Contributes to Xiongan New Area Development

China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has played a key role in the large-scale construction of Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province over the past five years, witnessing its significant growth.

It has shouldered more than 100 major projects covering a total building area of over 7.5 million square meters in the region.

Creating a new model for future projects

CSCEC pioneered in contracting the Xiongan Citizen Service Center on Nov 22, 2017, the first project in the area. It was also the first time for the company to act as general contractor in a whole-industrial chain mode project, including as an investor, a builder, an operator and a fund manager.

With a total building area of 103,300 sq m, the center is designed for various functions such as public service, urban planning exhibitions and conventions and conferences. It is expected to be a window for the world to learn about Xiongan New Area.

It took only 112 days for over 5,000 builders to complete and deliver the project with high quality, which was two to three times faster than the time required for equivalent construction volume.

North of the service center sits the soon-to-be-completed business service center, which is the first landmark urban complex in Xiongan New Area contracted by CSCEC.

Covering 901,000 sq m, the center is designed to function as a convention center, a five-star hotel, a business hotel, an office building and expert apartments. It is also expected to relieve Beijing of functions that are not essential to its role as the national capital. It is estimated that the area will be available for a population of more than 15,000 once operational.

Supporting infrastructure construction

The Beijing-Xiongan Intercity Railway and the Xiongan Railway Station started operation on Dec 27, 2020, shortening travel time between Beijing, Tianjin and surrounding areas.

The station was built up with 131,000 metric tons of steel, equaling that of 19 Eiffel Towers. Fully automatic robots together with manual precision workers were used for welding, which improved the work's quality and efficiency.

A bird's-eye view of the Xiongan Railway Station [Photo/sasc.gov.cn]

Promoting forest building

The first tree of the Millennium Forest project of Xiongan, which is expected to be a natural landscape environment for tourism and leisure and to act as a shared ecological buffer between cities, was planted on Nov 13, 2017.

Over the past five years, CSCEC has planted more than 1.5 million trees, covering an area of more than 34,070 mu (2,271.33 hectares). So far, the forest coverage in Xiongan New Area has expanded to 410,000 mu planted with over 20 million trees.

Located in North Xiongan New Area, Xiongan Jiaoye Park, covering an area of 26,800 mu (1,786.67 hectares), opened to the public in July 2021. It is China's largest outskirt park and features 14 forest areas planted with more than 280 varieties of trees, 200 varieties of ground cover plants and a variety of over 1 million shrubs.

CSCEC was responsible for the Handan and Xinji forest areas. Special tree planting training was given to staff members participating in the project to guarantee a tree survival rate above 98 percent.

The company also played a role in construction of Yuerong Park, another green project in Xiongan New Area. Jointly designed by nine leading garden designers in China, the park has nine areas, three of which were contracted by CSCEC.

A bird's-eye view of the forest in Xiongan New Area [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Improving low-carbon development

Known as the "Kidney of North China", Baiyangdian Lake in Rongcheng is a key ecological project in Xiongan New Area.

In October, 2019, CSCEC started to work on rural sewage remediation in Rongcheng. The company built 221 kilometers of pipelines as well as 19 sewage treatment facilities and 11,483 manholes, and renovated 15,840 seepage pits.

By using the biological contact oxidation method, sewage of the area can be brought to the highest standard. The domestic sewage now can be used in farmland irrigation and tree watering, which reduces usage of underground water and eliminates pollution risk of the lake.

The project has an average daily sewage treatment capacity of 3,500 tons, benefits more than 50,000 villagers in 19 villages, and supports ecological improvement of Baiyangdian Lake.

Some of CSCEC's subsidiaries were also responsible for dry pit treatment and underground recycled water projects in the area that improved the local water environment.

The area's first water treatment plant is underground at the park in Xiongan New Area.

CSCEC played a role in its construction. According to a staff member, the plant can purify 150,000 tons of water daily, providing high-quality drinking water for 300,000 residents in the area.

A comprehensive water quality monitoring room and a sampling room are installed in the plant, which can carry out real-time immediate water quality adjustments. The entire process from water sampling and delivery to analysis is conducted automatically and intelligently, guaranteeing safe operation.

A view of a water supply plant in Xiongan New Area [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The first phase of the Xiongan New Area integrated garbage treatment project contracted by CSCEC is soon to open.

It is expected to act as a tourist attraction and a science popularization education base. In the area, people can see green plants all year round, while below ground garbage is treated through enclosure of space, seepage-proofing, sound insulation and noise reduction measures, which limits impact on nearby residents.

As the first comprehensive garbage treatment facility in Xiongan New Area, the project can handle with all kinds of garbage like kitchen waste, municipal sludge, domestic garbage and medical waste. Heat released during treatment of organic refuse and garbage burning is used for power generation and the cinders are sent for reusable construction material production.

In terms of waste gas emissions, the project uses world-leading flue-gas treatment technology, realizing even lower pollutant release levels than Japan's and European Union's standards.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Once operational, it will be able to handle 3,000 tons of domestic garbage and will lay a solid foundation for building Xiongan into a zero-waste city.

Adhering to technological innovation

Smart devices and applications such as sponge green lands, smart road lamps, ecological parking lots, facial recognition-based unmanned supermarkets and unmanned driving vehicles are supporting development of Xiongan New Area.

Advanced technologies are also playing a critical role in nearly all construction projects.

For example, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and City Information Modeling (CIM) are used in all construction projects in the area.

The former mainly focuses on three-dimensional imagery and the latter is a city information complex integrating BIM, the geographic information system (GIS) and the Internet of Things (IoT). All of the construction process can be traced through digital platforms, as if a twin digital city had been created.

It's worth noting that more than 30 new building technologies were adopted in construction of the Xiongan Citizen Service Center, which included a smart building system capable of panoramic monitoring and unmanned aerial vehicle photography.

More than 100 green building technologies were also used in the the business service center, which has become a model for future low-carbon development construction.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)