On-site Investigation

On June 3, the founding of the Technical Expert Advisory Group for the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway Project and a special technical consultation meeting, jointly led and hosted by the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Shanghai-Hangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd., were held in Work Zone 3 of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway Project of China Railway 11th Bureau Group, a central enterprise based in Wuhan. A top-tier professional team composed of five academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering—Academician Lu Chunfang as group leader, and Nie Jianguo, Miao Changwen, Zhang Xigang, and Gong Xiaonan—along with experts from various sectors, went to the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway project site for investigation, diagnosing and advising on the "one bridge and one tunnel."

Wang Tongjun, Vice General Manager of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., and Ye Yangsheng, Chief Engineer; Li Jun, Deputy Director of the Development and Reform Commission of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government; Xu Renbiao, Mayor of Zhoushan Municipal People's Government; Yang Jianzhong, Party Secretary and Chairman of Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd., and Qian Guifeng, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary; and Chen Zhiming, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Railway 11th Bureau Group, and other leaders attended the meeting.

Meeting site

"How can the shield machine achieve high-precision docking undersea under high water pressure?" "How can the problem of tunnel segment floating in the marine environment be solved?" ... Focusing on rare engineering technical "bottlenecks" in the country, the attending experts put forward constructive opinions and suggestions on a series of difficulties in the construction of the Jintang Subsea Tunnel, pointed out successful experiences of similar projects at home and abroad, and from a professional perspective made forward-looking judgments on the direction of scientific research in the field of large shield engineering.

Aerial view of the shaft work site of the Jintang Subsea Tunnel

The Jintang Subsea Tunnel is the world's longest and largest-diameter subsea high-speed railway tunnel. The tunnel has an excavation diameter of about 14.57 meters and is a single-tube double-track tunnel with a total length of about 16.18 kilometers. Among them, the shield section of the tunnel is about 11.27 kilometers long and adopts bidirectional shield construction, with China Railway 11th Bureau Group undertaking the 6.27-kilometer construction task on the Zhoushan side.

Schematic diagram of subsea tunnel docking

Since entering the site in October 2022, under the guidance of Shanghai-Hangzhou Company, the builders of China Railway 11th Bureau Group have followed the management goal of "high-quality start, excellence achieved at once" and continuously explored new intelligent and green construction technologies for shield tunnels. The company will take the lead in introducing supporting and independently developed information systems for the shield machine, including integrated advanced geological forecasting, floating monitoring of shield tail segments, real-time monitoring of cutters, and visualization of the excavation chamber, supplemented by intelligent new equipment such as a shield tail synchronous grouting compactness detection device and a slurry pipeline stone crusher, to promote high-quality construction of the "world-class" tunnel project.

Adopting an advanced geological forecasting system

"The diagnosis and advice of the experts this time have injected strong momentum into the enterprise's deep cultivation of the large shield market." As the host of the meeting, Chen Zhiming, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Railway 11th Bureau Group, said that he sincerely looks forward to strengthening "industry-university-research-application" cooperation with industry experts, especially in fields such as track laying and erection engineering, large shields, special bridges, intelligent construction, and digital management, so as to use core technological advantages to serve modernization in the new era and contribute Hubei strength to world-class projects.

Developing a digital twin platform to guide on-site construction with information technology

The Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway has a total length of about 76.4 kilometers. Work Zone 3 of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway, undertaken by the Urban Rail Company of China Railway 11th Bureau Group, is about 13.8 kilometers long and includes the Jintang Subsea Tunnel, four drill-and-blast tunnels with a total length of 4.67 kilometers, three railway bridges with a total length of 1.62 kilometers, and a 1.2-kilometer subgrade section.

Schematic diagram of the plan and profile of the newly built Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway

As one of the ten landmark projects of Zhejiang Province's major corridor construction, once completed, the project will fill the gap of the last prefecture-level city in Zhejiang Province without railway access, further strengthen the integration effect between Ningbo and Zhoushan, and accelerate the full integration of Zhoushan and Ningbo into the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and the Belt and Road Initiative.