China's First Domestic 16-Meter-Class Super-Large Diameter Shield Machine

"Jinghua" Breaks Through Today

On the morning of June 28, good news came from the construction site of the Beijing East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project. The first domestic 16-meter-class super-large diameter shield machine "Jinghua," jointly developed by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry, Beijing Capital Highway Development Group, and China Railway 14th Bureau Group, successfully broke through, achieving the smooth breakthrough of the west line tunnel of the Beijing East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project. This marks the first-line breakthrough of China's longest shield highway tunnel, and this national-level "Science and Technology Demonstration Project" has made significant progress.

"Jinghua" breakthrough site

Stunning Debut, Famous in Beijing

On September 27, 2020, "Jinghua" rolled off the production line at China Railway Construction Heavy Industry's Changsha First Industrial Park. This "giant" shield machine has a maximum excavation diameter of 16.07 meters, a total length of 150 meters, and a total weight of 4,300 tons. Thus, China's largest diameter shield machine was born.

The equipment is huge, like a steel dragon lying across the workshop, over five stories high. The cutterhead painting extracts visual elements from Peking Opera facial makeup, using the red facial makeup representing loyalty, bravery, and righteousness in Peking Opera as the design prototype. Its striking appearance highlights Beijing's regional cultural characteristics.

For a time, the news of "Jinghua's" successful rollout attracted dozens of central mainstream media and local media, including People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China National Radio, and China Central Television, to conduct on-site interviews and reports. Internet influencers followed up simultaneously, and exciting mashup videos spread widely on platforms such as Sina Weibo and Bilibili, with over 50 million reads and over 1.25 million video views. In the same year, the rollout of the largest domestic shield machine "Jinghua" at China Railway Construction Heavy Industry was selected as one of the "Top 10 China Industrial News of 2020."

Hardcore Launch, High Attention

Time came to May 28, 2021. At the 20th General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 15th General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 10th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, pointed out that "the largest diameter shield machine was successfully launched." At the same time, in the "Questions and Answers on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," "Jinghua" also became a case of moving from Made in China to Created in China and promoting high-quality development.

On October 26 of the same year, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the National "13th Five-Year Plan" Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition. "Jinghua" (model) shone as an industry representative facing the main economic battlefield, becoming a typical sample of the continuous deep integration of national advanced manufacturing and technological innovation, boosting the technological upgrade of the manufacturing industry.

On September 27, 2022, "Jinghua" (model) appeared at the "Forging Ahead in the New Era" Theme Achievement Exhibition, once again reviewed by Party and state leaders.

In June 2023, "Jinghua" (model) was collected by the Museum of the Communist Party of China.

Repeated Records, Tunneling to the Future

The East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project starts from Jingha Expressway in the south and ends at Luyuan North Street in the north, with a design speed of 80 km/h and a total length of about 16 kilometers. Among them, the underground reconstruction section of about 7.4 kilometers uses the shield method, arranged in separate double tubes, each divided into three layers: the upper layer is a smoke exhaust channel, the middle layer is a 3-lane highway, and the lower layer is an evacuation and rescue channel. The excavation diameter is 16.07 meters, and the maximum burial depth is 75 meters, making it the deepest underground tunnel in Beijing.

The shield tunnel construction of this project integrates many construction difficulties such as "super-large diameter, super-long distance, super-deep overburden, and super-sensitive environment," making it the "ceiling" of tunnel construction technology. The R&D team of China Railway Construction Heavy Industry equipped the "Jinghua" shield machine with multiple advanced innovative technologies and many independent core key technologies, effectively ensuring the speed and safety of the shield machine's tunneling under complex geological conditions, enabling it to successfully pass through complex geology such as sand, water-rich high-density sand layers, and interactive layers of silt and clay.

Since the launch of "Jinghua," the R&D and service teams of China Railway Construction Heavy Industry have always stayed at their posts, overcome difficulties, and worked closely with China Railway 14th Bureau Group to promptly discover and solve on-site problems, ensuring the safety, quality, and efficiency of project construction, and achieving excellent results of a maximum daily advance of 24 meters and a maximum monthly advance of 542 meters.

On September 25, 2022, with the precise breakthrough of "Jinghua," the west line tunnel of the Beijing East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project successfully completed the reception of the shield machine at the intermediate ventilation shaft, marking the breakthrough of the first section of China's longest shield highway tunnel.

It is understood that the Beijing East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project is a landmark project for Beijing's sub-center to "create an innovative development axis that stitches urban functions, effectively mend urban space, and solve the problem of highways dividing the city." After opening to traffic, it will promote the integration of Tongzhou urban area with the administrative office area of the sub-center, and is of great significance for improving Beijing's traffic service level, promoting the integration of transportation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and building a comprehensive transportation system. This time, "Jinghua" helped the smooth breakthrough of the west line tunnel, marking significant progress in the construction of the East Sixth Ring Road Reconstruction Project.