China Railway 14th Bureau Group Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, began the construction of the Suzhou East Tunnel with the Tongyong Yuanmeng tunnel boring machine in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, on April 18.
The Suzhou East Tunnel project is located in Suzhou Industrial Park and Wuzhong district. With a length of 15.5 kilometers, the project is the country's longest urban high-speed railway tunnel.
The approximately 11.6-kilometer-long section of the high-speed railway tunnel project is being excavated with the tunnel boring machine, whose diameter is about 14.81 meters.
The tunnel project will pass beneath three railways, two subways, more than 20 important city roads and several buildings, rivers and lakes. It will fundamentally minimize negative impacts upon ground transportation, be connected with the planned Suzhou East Railway Station (an underground high-speed railway hub), and achieve interconnection between high-speed railways, inter-city railways and regional railways.
Engineers check the condition of the tunnel boring machine at the construction site of the Suzhou East Tunnel in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The tunnel is a control project of a railway linking Nantong in Jiangsu and Ningbo in Zhejiang, an important part of the coastal corridor of China's high-speed railway network. Upon completion, the new line will be connected with several operational high-speed railways including the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway. It will further improve the railway network in the Yangtze River Delta region, playing a crucial role in promoting high-quality integrated development of the area.
(Executive editor: Zhu Zeya)
