On March 27, at the construction site of Shield Launching Shaft No. 3 of the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu High-Speed Railway in Wan'an Village, Chongming, Shanghai—built by the Shanghai-Hangzhou Passenger Dedicated Line Company and constructed by China Railway Tunnel Group—the cutterhead and main body of "Linghang Hao" (Pilot), the world's largest-diameter domestically produced high-speed railway shield machine, were successfully assembled. This reunion, following their earlier separation in Hangzhou, marks that the assembly of the "Linghang Hao" shield machine has entered its final sprint stage.
At 10:18 a.m., under the coordinated operation of two crawler cranes of 800 tons and 400 tons, the 440-ton shield machine cutterhead was slowly lifted from the ground, rotated in the air, safely lowered into the shaft, and precisely docked with the shield body waiting below, completing the successful assembly of the shield main body and cutterhead.
"Linghang Hao" completes the successful assembly of the shield main body and cutterhead. Photo courtesy of Chongming District
In the future, the "Linghang Hao" shield machine will operate 89 meters beneath the Yangtze River, boring 11.3255 kilometers in a single heading. The complex geological conditions beneath the riverbed place high demands on the cutterhead's performance and quality, which directly affect the shield tunneling efficiency. The cutterhead of the "Linghang Hao" shield machine has been "custom-made," equipped with a series of advanced scientific designs that make it more intelligent and efficient during tunneling.
Wang Yi, deputy equipment manager of the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel, said: "We use wear-resistant alloy blocks and wear-resistant composite steel plates to fully encase the cutterhead, making it more wear-resistant during long-distance tunneling through sand. In addition, we have optimized the overall structure of the cutterhead, adopting an inverted cone shape and equipping it with multiple flushing channels to prevent clay from forming mud cakes in the cohesive strata on both banks."
The "Linghang Hao" shield machine has a total length of 128 meters and a total weight of about 4,000 tons, equivalent to the weight of 2,600 cars. Composed of a cutterhead, main body, equipment bridge, and four trailers, it is currently the world's largest-diameter high-speed railway slurry balance shield machine, with an excavation diameter of 15.4 meters. Since the assembly of Trailer No. 1 began on February 25, the project team has organized meticulously and rehearsed the assembly process in advance, successfully completing the welding of the 6+1-piece cutterhead, as well as the assembly of one equipment bridge, four trailers, and the 10+1-piece main body, laying a solid foundation for the assembly of the shield main body and cutterhead.
Wang Yi said: "After the cutterhead is lowered into the shaft, we will tighten the cutterhead bolts, then advance the main body forward as a whole, and then install the shield tail and segment erector and conduct integrated commissioning and testing of the entire machine, so that the shield machine will be ready for launch."
According to the construction plan, in April 2024, the "Linghang Hao" shield machine will launch from Shaft No. 3 in Chongming District, Shanghai, and after boring 11.3255 kilometers in a single heading across the Yangtze River, it will reach Shaft No. 2 in Taicang City, Jiangsu Province.
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