Construction of China’s first underwater railway tunnel was completed last week in south China. The tunnel, part of the high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, will allow trains to pass the Pearl River estuary faster than any other underwater crossing.
The Shiziyang Tunnel crosses the Pearl River estuary in south China’s Guangdong Province with a length of 10.8 kilometers. It is designed for trains travelling at 350km per hour. Construction started on the tunnel in November 2007 and was driven by four NFM Technologies TBMs at depths of up to 60m.
The 10.8-kilometer tunnel is a key part of a 142-kilometer high-speed rail link that connects Guangzhou, the capital of China’s southern economic powerhouse Guangdong, with the city of Shenzhen and then on to Hong Kong. The Express Rail Link or XRL is divided into two sections, the Guangshen section with four to six stations, and the Hong Kong section, with one station. Service was due to commence in 2010, but is now scheduled to begin in 2011 while construction of the Hong Kong section is expected to begin in 2010. Service on the Hong Kong section is scheduled to open in 2016.
