Recently, the super-large-diameter slurry shield "Qiangguo," jointly developed by CRCC and China Railway 22nd Bureau, was successfully launched, marking that the largest-diameter shield tunnel built by Shenzhen Metro Group—the Qianhai-Huanggang section of the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Railway—has officially entered the shield tunneling construction stage.

"Qiangguo" launches smoothly

The "Qiangguo" has an excavation diameter of 13.27 meters and a total length of 129 meters. It is used for the construction of the 1# open-cut section to Huanggang Checkpoint Station of the Qianhai-Huanggang section of the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Railway. The shield-driven section of this lot is 3,511.566 meters long. The longitudinal profile of the route is a double-V slope, with a maximum longitudinal slope of 27‰, a minimum curve radius of 1,300 meters, a maximum tunnel invert depth of 46 meters, and a maximum pressure of about 4.6 Bar. The tunnel crosses upper-soft and lower-hard strata and highly permeable strata over long distances, with locally fractured, strongly weathered granite strata. The shallowest cover is 10.7 meters. There are many important structures and buildings along the route, and the surface settlement control requirements are high, making construction extremely difficult.

In response to the above major engineering challenges, the CRCC R&D team carried out a series of targeted designs for the "Qiangguo" to address the difficulties encountered in long-distance crossing of upper-soft and lower-hard strata for this project. At the same time, the equipment is equipped with multiple intelligent and humanized innovative designs, providing strong guarantees for safe tunnel construction.

"Qiangguo" cutterhead lowered into the shaft

The Qianhai-Huanggang Checkpoint section of the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Railway passes through the Qianhai Cooperation Zone, Nanshan District, and Futian District of Shenzhen, with a main line length of 21.167 kilometers. After completion, the line will be of great significance for improving the intercity rail backbone network in Shenzhen's coastal area and supporting the rapid construction of key development areas such as the Qianhai Free Trade Zone and Dongguan Binhai New City. Since the first component was lowered into the shaft for assembly in February 2023, the CRCC R&D and service teams have remained at their posts, overcome difficulties, and responded promptly to customer needs, laying a solid foundation for the smooth launch of the shield machine.