Recently, the reporter learned at Qingdao North Station that the metro Qingdao North Station, an important part of the project, has completed 89% of the total works. The main structure is expected to be completed by the end of September, and track laying will begin in early October. After the project is put into use, it will be integrated with the Qingdao North Railway Station and become the largest metro station in the city with the most metro lines for transfer.

The metro Qingdao North Station under construction has completed 89% of the total works.

Getting off the train and directly taking the metro to the city center will soon be realized at the metro Qingdao North Station. Recently, the reporter learned at Qingdao North Station that the metro Qingdao North Station, an important part of the project, has completed 89% of the total works. The main structure is expected to be completed by the end of September, and track laying will begin in early October. After the project is put into use, it will be integrated with the Qingdao North Railway Station and become the largest metro station in the city with the most metro lines for transfer.

6 Railway Lines

Intersect with 3 Metro Lines

On July 9, at the former landfill site on Taiyuan Road, Licang District, Qingdao, hundreds of workers were cutting and binding steel bars in the drizzle, carrying out the final construction of the main structure of the metro station. This is the construction site of Qingdao North Station and also the terminus of Qingdao Metro Line 3.

As the largest comprehensive transportation hub project in Qingdao, it will gather 6 railway lines including the Jiaozhou-Jinan Railway and Qingdao-Rongcheng Intercity Railway, as well as Qingdao Metro Lines 1, 3, and 8. “The metro Qingdao North Station is underground, and above it are the platforms and concourse of the Qingdao North Railway Station,” introduced Liu Mingzhong, chief engineer of the Qingdao North Station project of China Railway No.2 Engineering Group. “Trains running above and metro running below” is the final construction intention of the station.

The total construction area of the metro Qingdao North Station is about 100,000 square meters, designed with three underground levels. In addition to being a transfer station for 3 metro lines, it will also include underground taxi and private car parking lots, and provide transfers with various transportation modes such as railway, bus, and long-distance bus.

According to the introduction, the metro Qingdao North Station is the station with the largest project scale, the most metro lines for transfer, the most transfer transportation modes, and the most complex design and construction in the Qingdao metro network. The metro concourse level and the railway station exit passage are both located on the first underground floor, so railway passengers exiting can directly enter the metro concourse to transfer to the metro. Metro passengers arriving can take the upward escalator directly to the ground-level railway station front platform to transfer to trains.

According to the design, Metro Lines 3 and 8 are located on the second underground floor, adopting a dual-island four-track same-platform transfer mode. Line 3 is located between the two islands, and Line 8 is on the outer sides of the two islands. Passengers arriving on Line 3 can get off on one side of the platform and directly transfer to Line 8 on the other side; passengers arriving on Line 8 can get off on one side of the platform and directly transfer to Line 3 on the other side of the same platform, achieving a true “zero transfer”. Line 1 is located on the third underground floor, forming a “cross” shaped transfer with Lines 3 and 8. Through the transfer stairs set on the platform, passengers can directly reach the platforms of Lines 3 and 8 on the second underground floor, with a short transfer path.

“After completion, the metro Qingdao North Station will be the largest metro station in Qingdao and currently the third largest metro station in China,” said a staff member of the design party.

65,000 Tons of Steel Bars

Support the Station Skeleton

The metro Qingdao North Station, with three-line transfer and grand scale, is extremely rare in China. Because the construction site is a coastal tidal flat, the construction process faces difficulties such as high technical difficulty, tight schedule, high safety risks of deep foundation pit engineering, and large interference from cross operations.

It is reported that the former Taiyuan Road landfill where the metro Qingdao North Station is located has buried the city's garbage for decades within a 4-square-kilometer area, totaling 5 million cubic meters. During the construction of the metro station, the construction party removed a total of 1.2 million cubic meters of soil, including 500,000 cubic meters of garbage, indicating a huge engineering volume.

At the same time, the project is located in a coastal tidal flat landform area, which was later reclaimed from the sea. The geology is soft and special; the groundwater level is high, and silt is everywhere, which greatly affects the stability of the foundation pit.

“In particular, two areas have complex pit-in-pit structures, and the retaining and support forms of the foundation pit are diverse, making it a typical representative of complex large deep foundation pit construction in soft strata. We conducted multiple tests in the preliminary design, adopted water-stop curtains for waterproofing, and used various supports, ultimately solving the problem of foundation pit stability,” introduced a technical staff member of the construction party.

“Although the geological layer where the metro station is located is weak, there is no need to worry about safety at all.” Liu Mingzhong told the reporter that the metro Qingdao North Station can be said to be “made of steel and iron bones” overall, with the steel structure supporting the entire metro station. The total amount of steel bars used is expected to reach 65,000 tons.

Metro North Station to Lay Tracks in October

The metro Qingdao North Station project started in 2010 and is divided into the national railway and metro public area, the station and garage area, and the interval entry/exit line area. At present, the public area crossing with the railway and the entry/exit area connected to the interval section have completed the main construction.

“After nearly 3 years of construction, the main structure of the public part of the metro Qingdao North Station was recently completed, and next it will officially turn to the construction stage of the national railway public part,” Liu Mingzhong told the reporter. The main structure of the public part constructed by the metro has been fully completed, and construction in non-overlapping areas is underway. The public area part will then be handed over to the national railway to start the above-ground construction of the railway north station.

At present, the metro Qingdao North Station has completed 89% of the total works. The main parts of Lines 3 and 8 are fully completed, while Line 1 is slightly slower. It is expected that the main structure of the metro station will be fully completed by the end of September this year, and track laying will begin in October.

The metro Qingdao North Station is a ground-platform, elevated waiting station, with the building part having two above-ground floors and one underground floor. Passengers enter from the ground at the east and west squares, wait in the elevated waiting room above the platforms and tracks, and after ticket inspection, take stairs or escalators down to the platforms to board. Exiting passengers take stairs or escalators from each platform down to the first underground floor exit passage, and after ticket inspection, transfer to the metro, taxi, etc. to leave the station.

At present, the prototype of the railway north station building constructed with steel structures has appeared, like a spreading “seagull”. The overall shape is dynamic and elegant, symbolizing the vigorous development of Qingdao.