Photo caption: In the Fujian Road working shaft of the east section of the North Hengdao Corridor, more than a dozen builders are installing the cutterhead section of the TBM "Jiangong".

After the west section of the North Hengdao Corridor opened to traffic, construction of the east section is also being stepped up. The reporter learned that the east section of the North Hengdao Corridor project is 8.2 kilometers long, including the tunnel from Wen'an Road to Shuangyang Road and the Longchang Road underpass. At present, the Longchang Road underpass has opened to traffic, and the tunnel section will also reach an important milestone in the second half of this year, with two TBMs, "Zongheng" and "Jiangong", planned to start boring in the second half of this year.

On the morning of the 22nd, at the Fujian Road working shaft, the starting point of the east section of the North Hengdao Corridor, the reporter saw more than a dozen builders installing the cutterhead section of the TBM "Jiangong". "The cutterhead of 'Jiangong' was lowered into the shaft recently, and the cutterhead is now being installed; after that, shield components such as the trailer frames will also be installed," said Sun Wei, chief engineer of the Second Command of the Third Business Division of SMI Highway Group. Compared with the shield-driven section of the west section, the east section is bored underground along Zhoujiazui Road, where underground utilities and traffic are both complex. In addition, compared with the west section, where only one TBM, "Zongheng", is working, the east section has two TBMs, "Zongheng" and "Jiangong", boring toward each other, which is expected to shorten the construction period by one year and greatly speed up construction.

"The entire North Hengdao Corridor is 19.1 kilometers long. The east section project runs from the Wen'an Road ground connection of the Tianmu Road interchange to Neijiang Road on Zhoujiazui Road and is scheduled to be completed and opened to traffic in 2023," Hou Jianfeng, chief engineer of the Third Business Division of SMI Highway Group, told the reporter. After the entire North Hengdao Corridor opens to traffic, driving from Yangpu to Hongqiao Airport will take only 30 minutes when traffic is clear. Compared with the previous route via the Inner Ring Road, this can save 15 minutes to half an hour.

It is reported that after the entire North Hengdao Corridor is completed, it will significantly divert traffic from the Yan'an Road Elevated Road and the northern section of the Inner Ring Road. Through the Beidi Expressway connected at the west end and the Zhoujiazui Road cross-river tunnel connected at the east end, compared with the current usual route via the Yan'an Elevated Road, "Greater Hongqiao" and "Greater Pudong" will have an additional direct expressway, and at the same time, it will resolve the awkward situation in which the Yan'an Elevated Road is the only rapid main road from Hongqiao Airport to Shanghai Railway Station, giving residents and tourists more travel options.