As a key provincial construction project, the construction progress of the Shantou Guang'ao Port Area Railway has attracted much attention. Reporters learned on the 17th from the project contractor, China Railway 14th Bureau Group, that excavation of the mine section of the "Shantou Bay Tunnel," a key controlling works of the project, has recently successfully surpassed the 3,000-meter mark, laying a solid foundation for the early breakthrough of the tunnel.

It is reported that the Shantou Bay Tunnel, as China's first undersea tunnel shared by passenger and freight traffic, has a total length of 9,965 meters. It is located in an area with seismic intensity of 8 degrees and crosses a total of 20 fault fracture zones. Affected by adverse geological conditions such as fault fracture zones, shallow cover sections, and water-rich sections, the overall construction is highly difficult and the safety risk control requirements are high. Among these, the mine section of the tunnel has a total length of 5,830 meters and crosses 9 fault fracture zones. With complex geological structures and hydrogeological conditions and a maximum burial depth of 157 meters, it is a major and difficult controlling works of the project.

Since entering the site, the project department of China Railway 14th Bureau Group has adhered to standardized management as the starting point, increased the promotion and use of new processes and new equipment, and successively invested in multiple pieces of mechanized equipment, including self-propelled cantilever hydraulic invert trestles, multifunctional steel bar and waterproof board operation trolleys, automatic concrete distribution lining trolleys, and wet spraying manipulators. Construction has been carried out according to the principles of "short advance, strong support, early closure, and weak blasting," with effective supervision over safety, quality, environmental protection, and progress.

At the same time, the project has formulated a self-inspection and self-correction system based on actual conditions, requiring technical personnel to document the construction process for each excavation cycle at every tunnel face and fill in process quality control forms to control tunnel construction progress and quality. Daily cyclic inspections and confirmations are carried out for excavation, primary support, invert, and secondary lining construction, with self-inspection and self-correction conducted weekly to ensure stable and controllable quality.

It is worth mentioning that, to ensure safe tunneling, the project department has also adopted various advanced geological prediction methods to comprehensively analyze and judge geological conditions, grasp the location, nature, and scale of faults in advance, and strengthen monitoring and measurement of key parameters such as tunnel convergence and settlement, ensuring controllable safety and quality during the tunneling process and enabling the stable and orderly advancement of various indicators at the tunnel exit and five working faces of two inclined shafts.

Facing the complex construction conditions and tight schedule requirements, the project builders have innovatively adopted complete tunnel construction technology during tunnel construction, used smooth blasting for tunnels, implemented risk control, and continuously optimized construction methods, strictly controlled process connections, coordinated resource allocation, clarified responsibility assignments and construction milestones, fully mobilized the construction enthusiasm of cooperating teams, further accelerated the excavation speed, and set off an upsurge of intensive construction in the Shantou Bay Tunnel from the inclined shafts into the main tunnel.

According to Zhao Haitao, the project manager, the project has also established an information-based dispatch command center and a tunnel construction site management system to achieve comprehensive information-based control of progress, safety, and quality. "At present, tunnel construction has entered a critical stage. The project will continue to strengthen on-site control and the input of personnel and machinery, advance the remaining tunnel construction with high quality and efficiency, and help open a new sea outlet channel for eastern Guangdong as soon as possible," Zhao Haitao said.

It is reported that after the Guang'ao Port Area Railway project is completed, it will help Shantou Port expand its northward radiation depth and provide convenient sea access channels for surrounding provinces and cities. At the same time, the project can also promote the development of the "sea-rail intermodal transport" system and provide important support for the efficient collection and distribution of regional material factors, reducing logistics costs and improving efficiency, and optimizing the regional business environment.