On the morning of December 26, the first hard-rock double-shield TBM "Shaoshan No.16" for the Minle Depot access-line tunnel of the Shenzhen Metro Line 6 Phase II project, constructed by China Railway No.5 Engineering Group under the management of Shenzhen Metro Group, was successfully launched.
The original site of Minle Depot was a quarry outside the Special Economic Zone. After planning and design by Shenzhen Metro Group, it will be integrated with municipal planning. Once completed, the project will be of extremely great significance for improving regional traffic, facilitating citizens' travel, and accelerating the process of economic integration of the Special Economic Zone.
The tunnel of the Minle Depot and access-line project of Shenzhen Metro Line 6 can be regarded as the first use of a double-shield TBM for 260-meter small-radius hard-rock excavation in China and across Asia. The construction process has high control requirements, great difficulty, and high technical demands. The construction unit used for the first time a hard-rock double-shield TBM shield machine independently developed by China for construction. The tunnel in this section will pass through 7 fault fracture zones and pass beneath related roads and existing lines. After careful planning and scientific arrangement by the Metro Group and the construction unit, the launch of this TBM was finally completed. The tunnel in this section is expected to achieve breakthrough by the end of 2018.