On May 19, the "Shanhe" (Mountains and Rivers) super-large-diameter shield tunneling machine, jointly developed and manufactured by Jinan Heavy Industry Group and Herrenknecht AG together with Jinan Urban Construction Group and China Railway 14th Bureau Group, rolled off the production line smoothly in Jinan. It will be used in the Huanggang Road Yellow River Crossing Tunnel Project in Jinan, adding another new corridor for Jinan's "carrying the river northward across the Yellow River."

Roll-off ceremony site

The Jinan Huanggang Road Yellow River Crossing Tunnel Project starts from Lanxiang Middle Road in the south and, heading north, successively passes beneath the Second Ring Road North, the Ring Expressway North, the south bank levee, the Yellow River, the north bank levee, and the Queshan Reservoir sedimentation basin, with its terminus connecting to the G309 interchange under construction. The project has a total length of about 5,755 meters, of which the tunnel is about 4,762 meters long and the shield-driven section is 3,290 meters long. It adopts a single-tube double-deck design with six lanes in both directions; the shield segment has an inner diameter of 15.4 meters, an outer diameter of 16.8 meters, and a ring width of 2 meters. As the first single-tube double-deck shield tunnel crossing the Yellow River, it will effectively save urban underground space and is expected to save 15% of investment costs; at the same time, the tunnel's clear height of 4.2 meters can meet the passage requirements of buses, firefighting, management, and rescue vehicles, greatly improving traffic capacity.

This tunnel will once again cross the Yellow River and is another major north-south corridor following the Jiluo Road Yellow River Crossing Tunnel, the "first tunnel of the ten-thousand-li Yellow River." It crosses over a long distance through complex geology including fully weathered silty clay, calcareous concretions, and cemented sand layers, with a maximum overburden thickness of 49.2 meters, placing extremely high demands on the performance of the shield machine. The "Shanhe" slurry shield machine, tailor-made for the project, has a maximum excavation diameter of 17.5 meters, a total length of 163 meters, a weight of about 5,200 tons, and a total installed power of 12,580 kilowatts. It is equipped with a total of 306 cutting tools of various types, of which 57 have a roller-to-tooth interchange function to optimize its performance in variable strata; it is fitted with a pressurized composite cutterhead, a telescopic main drive, and a telescopic camera in the slurry chamber; and it carries an automatic cutterhead wear monitoring system, an online equipment status monitoring system, and the "five senses and one brain" intelligent equipment system, and achieves remote control through the large shield cloud smart platform to ensure tunneling safety and efficiency.

Full view of the "Shanhe" shield tunneling machine

The shield machine is named "Shanhe," which not only reflects the regional characteristics of Mount Tai and the Yellow River but also cleverly integrates the names of the previous two Yellow River crossing shield machines ("Taishan" and "Huanghe"), demonstrating the project team's good wishes to continuously build safe and premium projects. The auspicious beast Qilin painted on the cutterhead highlights the China-chic style and symbolizes good fortune and peace, implying that the Qilin protects the shield machine as it overcomes difficulties and successfully completes its journey across the Yellow River.

The Jinan Huanggang Road Yellow River Crossing Tunnel Project is one of the major north-south corridors across the Yellow River. Once completed, it will help interconnect Jinan's main urban area with the Jinan Start-up Area for Growth Drivers Transformation, strongly accelerate the comprehensive construction of the Start-up Area, promote Jinan's transition from the "Daming Lake era" to the "Yellow River era," and provide strong support for the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.