On July 30, the "Lingnan Zhicheng" earth pressure/slurry dual-mode shield machine, jointly developed with the participation of Sinohydro Bureau 6 Co., Ltd., successfully rolled off the production line in Zhongshan, Guangdong.

The "Lingnan Zhicheng" shield machine has an excavation diameter of 6.68 meters and a total length of approximately 130 meters. It integrates the design concepts and functions of earth pressure and slurry shield machines, enabling "one-click switching" between two different tunneling modes and achieving "all-round capability in both soft and hard ground." It will undertake the 1,066-meter tunneling task on the right line of the Yayuan Station to Yayao Station section of the north extension of the Guangzhou Rail Transit Line 8 project.

Through its connection with the existing Line 8, the north extension of the Guangzhou Rail Transit Line 8 project serves the "northward expansion" of the traditional central axis. Once completed, it will improve the regional rail transit coverage, enhance the radiation and agglomeration functions of the central urban area, and drive the development of new towns along the route. The civil works Section 2 of Bid Package 2 undertaken by Sinohydro Bureau 6 Co., Ltd. is located in Huadu District and includes two stations, two running tunnels, and the Yayao Depot access line. The tunnel needs to pass through unfavorable strata such as water-rich, strongly developed karst areas, upper-soft lower-hard ground, upper-sand lower-rock ground, and fault fracture zones, and to pass beneath rivers and dense building (structure) clusters. The complex geological conditions, high construction difficulty, and high safety risks place higher demands on the performance of the shield equipment. Sinohydro Bureau 6 Co., Ltd. actively participated in equipment optimization and, together with Beijing Jiaotong University, East China Engineering Corporation, and other units, developed an "intelligent auxiliary tunneling system" and a "karst intelligent control system," promoted cutterhead optimization and the design of a "combined discharge and breaking" tunneling method, and improved the equipment's ability to overcome "geological forbidden zones" such as karst, gas, and fault zones, providing a guarantee for safe and efficient tunneling under complex geological conditions.