On June 30, the large-diameter slurry shield tunneling machine "Qihang" (meaning "Setting Sail for Hangzhou"), jointly developed by China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group and China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, successfully rolled off the production line. The equipment will be used in Work Zone 3 of Section 5 in front of the Hangzhou Airport high-speed railway station.

The "Qihang" slurry shield machine has an overall length of about 130 meters and an excavation diameter of 14.25 meters. It will be used for the tunnel construction from Xiaoshan Airport Station to the east side of the intersection of Kanhong Road and Qianhang Road, contracted by China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group. The shield-driven section of the tunnel is 2,675.05 meters long, with a minimum cover depth of about 7.39 meters and a maximum cover depth of about 24.33 meters. The equipment must traverse silty sand layers, mucky clay layers, silty soil layers, and mucky silty clay interbedded with silty soil layers over a long distance, and pass alongside multiple buildings including the airport customs office, the China Eastern Airlines office building, the airport public security bureau office building, and the airport customs office building, while passing beneath Hangzhou Metro Line 7, the No. 10 Road Bridge, Airport Tunnel No. 3, the Airport Utility Tunnel No. 14, and elevated bridges. Overall, the construction is highly difficult and carries high safety risks.

The "Qihang" shield machine features a large diameter, high thrust, high torque, and a high degree of intelligence. It will enter the site in September for assembly, commissioning, and launch. At that time, multiple intelligent systems such as "intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, intelligent execution, and intelligent control" will be adopted to ensure safe and controllable shield tunnel construction and to ensure the efficient and steady progress of the Hangzhou Airport high-speed railway project.

As an important project of the "Yangtze River Delta on Rails," the Hangzhou Airport high-speed railway project is Zhejiang Province's first high-speed railway project to pass beneath the Qiantang River in tunnel form, and also Zhejiang Province's first high-speed railway project to pass beneath an airport in tunnel form. It starts in Tongxiang City, Jiaxing City in the north and ends in Keqiao District, Shaoxing City in the south, passing through Haining City, Qiantang District, Xiaoshan District, and other counties and districts of Jiaxing City, and traversing 3 cities and 5 districts (counties) in Zhejiang Province along the route. Once completed, the project will realize air-rail intermodal transport, linking airports, urban rail transit, and expressways to form a multi-level rail transit network. It will not only shorten the spatial and temporal distance between Xiaoshan International Airport and various places within Zhejiang Province, but also achieve connections with the Yangtze River Delta and even the whole country, which is of great significance for promoting high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.