Recently, the main structure of the throat area of Beijiao Depot on Foshan Metro Line 3 was successfully capped.

The throat area of Beijiao Depot is an important construction zone connecting the stabling and inspection depot with the transition section of the track area on the access line, and is key to the smooth progress of subsequent track-laying operations. Following the earlier handover of the comprehensive building and the handover of the main line track-laying base, Beijiao Depot has advanced steadily and completed another key milestone according to the established construction plan, providing a solid guarantee for subsequent track-laying operations and the achievement of the schedule.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the builders of Foshan Metro stayed true to their original aspiration, devoted themselves to the cause of Foshan rail transit, and presented a gift to the Party's centenary with practical actions.

Beijiao Depot is located in Shunde District, Foshan City. The geological conditions are complex, with crisscrossing rivers in the site area, deep soft foundations, and an average thickness of silty soil and silty fine sand of up to 33 meters.

The surrounding environment is complex, with many nearby projects under construction, densely distributed private houses, and close proximity to the construction area. The metro project is jointly designed and developed with the property above, and the structural form is novel and complex. Therefore, during implementation, the project faces major challenges in construction organization and technology, safety and quality control, and external communication and coordination.

To this end, Foshan Railway Investment Group tackled the difficulties head-on, with unity from top to bottom, scientific and refined construction planning, and solid and effective process control, overcoming numerous difficulties and going all out to advance the project, steadily and orderly achieving one schedule milestone after another.

The throat area structure of Beijiao Depot is large in volume and complex in form, and the structural construction scope involves multiple river relocations and limited working space, among other objective factors. Before project implementation, Foshan Railway Investment Group organized the construction and supervision units many times to discuss construction and organization plans, repeatedly studied and optimized them in combination with the design scheme and site conditions, and divided the throat area into 17 post-cast strips according to local conditions. By "breaking the whole into parts and tackling each one individually," it creatively formulated a "zoning and block" construction organization strategy, providing a scientific and reasonable target guarantee for the smooth realization of the project.

Schedule control—Facing the schedule task of the first phase of Line 3, coupled with the rainy season and the "resurgence" of the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction schedule of Beijiao Depot was extremely tight. To this end, Foshan Railway Investment Group reversed the schedule, closely monitored work efficiency, and ensured daily progress supported weekly progress, weekly progress supported ten-day progress, and ten-day progress supported monthly progress, with meticulous and persistent management to ensure that all schedule milestones were met; it urged the site to increase resource input, with more than 200 workers on site in the throat area at peak times; with joint efforts from top to bottom, leaders led teams to coordinate on-site constraints many times, effectively advancing the project; and it proactively coordinated with the track discipline, dynamically adjusted civil construction organization and arrangements, and prioritized the provision of track-laying work faces.

Safety control—The throat area construction process has many risk points, including construction adjacent to private houses with high protection requirements, cross-operation near construction sites with difficult construction coordination, and heavy management tasks for high formwork major hazard projects and large hoisting machinery operations. To this end, the owner's representatives intensified on-site inspections, carried out resident management, promptly eliminated hidden safety hazards on site, and effectively ensured on-site safety in production.

Quality control—The throat area structure is complex and changeable. Due to the characteristics of irregular structures, irregular beams, and river retaining walls sharing foundations with the main structure, the construction difficulty of each process, from scaffold erection and formwork installation to rebar tying, increased exponentially.

To effectively ensure construction quality, Foshan Railway Investment Group continuously enriched quality control ideas and solidly carried out various quality control tasks. From actively coordinating and promoting the optimization and implementation of various on-site technical schemes to daily inspections, on-site actual measurements, weekly site meetings, and regular special quality improvement meetings, a series of measures ensured controllable quality.

At present, Beijiao Depot has entered the middle and late stages of civil construction. As the saying goes, "half of the journey is only half done." Going forward, Foshan Railway Investment Group will, as always and in one vigorous effort, continue to fully advance the remaining works of Beijiao Depot under the premise of ensuring safety and quality, closely monitor the schedule and consolidate responsibilities, and ensure that subsequent milestone tasks are completed on time.