On April 28, the largest shield tunnel under construction in South China—the Chunfeng Tunnel in Shenzhen—was completed and is expected to be ready for traffic by the end of this year.

The Chunfeng Tunnel has a total length of 5,078 meters, of which the shield-driven section is 3,603 meters. It was excavated using "Chunfeng," a super-large-diameter slurry balance shield tunneling machine independently developed by China. Because vehicles will travel on two levels within the tunnel in the future, the excavation diameter of the tunnel reaches 15.8 meters.

At the same time, the tunnel is located at the border between Luohu and Futian, where there are many old buildings along the route and the construction environment is complex. Construction personnel had to overcome multiple challenges, including complex geological conditions, to ensure the smooth completion of the shield tunneling work.

The Chunfeng Tunnel is expected to be ready for traffic by the end of the year. Once open, it will together with the existing Chunfeng Elevated Road form a composite east-west corridor in Shenzhen, and the traffic capacity of the Chunfeng Road section will increase by about one fold.