Design engineers, construction project supervisors and ministry officials from throughout China attended the fifth Chinese Tunnel Symposium in Beijing last month, to hear about the latest in western tunnelling technology and related equipment.
The now well established event has been organised by T&TI for the past five years in conjunction with the Ministry of Railways and with backing from the Chinese Tunnelling Society.
Both Chinese and international presentations were made to the symposium which was held at the Friendship hotel conference facilities in the north east of China’s capital. Overseas participants were Volvo trucks and Atlas Copco drills from Sweden, Germany’s Wirth TBM manufacturer, seal maker Phoenix, Switzerland’s Sika-Aliva materials and shotcrete makers, British ventilation firm Woods Air Movement and newly merged Anglo-German injection technology and anchor firm Carbo-Tech-Fosroc. Swedish Contractor NCC and German consultant DMT also spoke and ran workshop sessions.
Chinese authors made presentations on major projects in railway development and metros including the Shenzhen metro. Some six cities are considering or beginning metros and there are substantial lengths of railway tunnel to be built in the next period.
China’s new turn to open up its mountainous but underdeveloped western areas means large numbers of rail, road and water tunnels will be constructed in the next 10 years. Included could be a giant scheme to transfer water from the flood prone Yangtse river to the drier and more northern Yellow river basin. Three huge tunnel routes are involved.
