Project rendering

On May 22, in the space 12 meters underground within the Wuchang Binjiang Core Area Underground Space Loop (Phase II) Project (hereinafter referred to as the Wuchang Binjiang Underground Loop Project), researchers were hard at work on site, going all out to achieve the goal of opening the underground loop to traffic as soon as possible.

The Wuchang Binjiang Underground Loop Project is located in the Wuchang Binjiang Core Area of Wuhan, comprising a 3-kilometer main line and 3 kilometers of ramps. It is currently the largest underground garage connecting-road project in Central China, with a total of 19 plot garage interfaces, linking 23,000 parking spaces, featuring 13 ramps connecting to municipal roads, and connecting via 2 directional ramps to the world's largest urban shield tunnel—the Sanyang Road Road-Rail River Crossing. It is also Wuhan's first urban traffic tunnel integrated and co-built with plot underground spaces. Among this, the first bid section of the project has a total length of 3,513 meters, including the main loop road, ramps, and loop connecting roads, among other construction contents.

In the first half of 2021, the project entered the construction of the air ducts above the underground loop. Unlike conventional projects, constrained by terrain conditions, the air ducts of this underground loop are designed with a height of only 1 meter, which means that during the support removal stage after the full scaffolding erection and formwork pouring were completed, workers had to stoop over to carry out construction in an extremely narrow space.

Working in narrow spaces not only poses safety hazards but also affects the construction schedule. Would it be possible to design a movable dedicated steel formwork trolley to replace the traditional manually erected supports? After on-site inspections, the technical personnel adopted the solution of "replacing manual labor with machinery."

Faced with these construction challenges, the project adopted the principle of a three-order Rubik's Cube and designed a "Rubik's Cube trolley" that can be disassembled and reassembled at any time.

After months of demonstration and calculation, the steel formwork trolley scheme was finalized. The technical team compared multiple suppliers and, after much effort, contacted a formwork factory in Ezhou, producing drawings, performing calculations, and conducting physical pre-loading experiments... After half a year of effort, the steel formwork trolley made a stunning debut in the construction of the underground loop air duct structure.

As the formwork support system for the air duct roof, the trolley enables rebar tying and concrete pouring on the top surface. During formwork removal, the mid-span trolley is retained to maintain support; after demolding, a specially made forklift tows and slides the trolley out of the bay, achieving continuous cyclic progressive construction, with efficiency improved by 30% compared with traditional formwork support systems.

Currently, the main line of the first bid section is undergoing decoration and mechanical and electrical installation work, while the 1-1 and 1-3 ramp areas are in the main structure construction stage. Once fully completed, the project can fully realize parking resource sharing in the Wuchang Binjiang Core Area and enhance the service level of river-crossing traffic.