On September 14, at the construction site of the plateau railway project of China Railway Tunnel Group, the 'Snow Region Pioneer', China's first large-diameter TBM applied to plateau and high-cold railways, successfully achieved remote-controlled launch from the surface, marking a new stage in the intelligent construction of long tunnels in China's plateau and high-cold regions.

The plateau railway tunnel is 37.9 kilometers long, and China Railway Tunnel Group is undertaking the construction of the 20.675-kilometer entrance section. As an extra-long deep-buried tunnel, it has extremely complex geological conditions and requires long-distance, large-section crossing of highly seismic active zones, high-ground-stress rockbursts, and high-quartz-content hard granite, as well as crossing unfavorable geological joint-dense zones, altered rock zones, and water-rich fault fracture zones. It is an extremely high-risk tunnel and a world-class tunnel construction challenge.

In response to the extreme construction environment of the tunnel, China Railway Tunnel Group customized the 'Snow Region Pioneer' TBM accordingly:

For efficient rock breaking and tunneling in long-distance, hard-rock environments, a reinforced cutterhead design and a heavy disc cutter design with reasonable cutter spacing were adopted. Meanwhile, the TBM main bearing also adopted a special design to meet the needs of long-distance tunneling under extreme conditions.
For dealing with rockburst geology, an integrated rockburst detection system was installed, enabling 24-hour uninterrupted monitoring of rockburst disasters and greatly improving construction safety in rockburst sections. For construction in fault fracture zones, a wet-mix spraying manipulator in the L1 area, an integrated device for steel arch and segment assembly, an auxiliary thrust system, and an advanced grouting reinforcement design were set up to improve surrounding rock stability. For construction in mud and water inrush strata, an independent advanced pipe-roof drilling rig and grouting system were configured to carry out timely and effective advanced geological reinforcement.

The 'Snow Region Pioneer' is the largest-diameter TBM for railways in China, with a total length of 245 meters and a weight of about 2,500 tons. It will drive more than 18 kilometers in a single heading on the right line of the plateau tunnel, with an excavation diameter of 10.33 meters and a maximum advance speed of 100 millimeters per minute, capable of excavating a tunnel equivalent to the height of a four-story building in the complex plateau geological environment.

To explore 'fewer-people' and 'unmanned' TBM construction in plateau and high-cold regions, China Railway Tunnel Group empowered the 'Snow Region Pioneer' with intelligent tunneling technology and built an intelligent construction center integrating 16 systems, with surface remote control as the core, in the project office area. Builders can remotely control TBM construction in the intelligent construction center, fully replacing all operations in the previous in-tunnel main control room and providing all control functions such as TBM tunneling and step changing. The intelligent construction center has six core modules. In addition to remote control, it also has functions such as intelligent tunneling, fault self-diagnosis, environmental health monitoring, big data platform plus group intelligent interconnection, and online status intelligent monitoring.

The launch of the 'Snow Region Pioneer' marks the first realization of remote control in China's railway TBM construction, providing a solid foundation for improving the safety, convenience, and continuity of TBM tunneling in extremely harsh and complex environments.

It is reported that after the launch of the 'Snow Region Pioneer', another TBM, the 'Loyalty and Responsibility', for left-line construction will also be launched subsequently. By then, the two TBMs will advance together, contributing the strength of builders of the new era to accelerating plateau railway tunnel construction, building a country with strong transportation, and better serving the high-quality development of border areas.