Recently, at the construction site of the Santian Island Tunnel on the Rugao-Tongzhou-Suzhou-Huzhou Intercity Railway, a key project of the Yangtze River Delta intercity rail transit network, a critical milestone was reached.

The cutterhead of the "Yuanqu Rongda" slurry shield tunneling machinehas been fully assembled,laying a solid foundation for the smooth tunneling of the shield.

The project has taken another important step forward.The Santian Island Tunnel isone of the controlling works on the Suzhou North Station to Suzhou East Station section of the Rugao-Tongzhou-Suzhou-Huzhou Intercity Railway.

The tunnel under construction starts from Suzhou East Station and runs northward, passing successively beneath Dushu Lake Avenue, Qihui Road, Jinji Lake Avenue, Xietang River, and Fengli Street, before terminating at Dongsha Lake. Its alignment is basically parallel to the Suzhou East Tunnel of the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo Railway. The shield-driven sections of the left and right lines are about 7 kilometers long, with a maximum burial depth of about 45 meters.

The Rugao-Tongzhou-Suzhou-Huzhou Intercity Railway is a near-term construction project explicitly designated in the National "Yangtze River Delta Multi-level Rail Transit Plan" and is also a north-south intercity trunk line in the Yangtze River Delta region near Shanghai. The Suzhou North Station to Suzhou East Station section has a total length of 34.9 kilometers and includesSuzhou North, Suzhou Industrial Park, and Suzhou East3 stations, with a design speed of 160 km/h.