On June 19, the construction of Nanjing Metro Line 5 reached an important milestone. At the construction site of Shanxi Road Station in the northern section, with the precise installation of the final pair of 25-meter steel rails, the entire line achieved the phased goal of "short rail connection" ahead of schedule.

As a trunk line running north-south through the main city, Nanjing Metro Line 5 achieving short rail connection across the entire line is another major construction milestone following the full tunnel breakthrough on April 30, signaling that Line 5 will soon fully enter the electromechanical installation and systems engineering construction phase and take a solid step toward initial trial operation.

According to reports, when the southern section of Line 5 opened, 64% of the 32.9-kilometer northern section's track had yet to be laid. Due to the impact of civil construction and other factors, the track-laying work on the northern section of Line 5 faced a tight schedule and heavy tasks. In addition, track-laying construction was constrained by limited site space, difficulties in bringing in materials, and the reduction of mechanized track-laying bases, posing significant challenges.

To solve these problems, Nanjing Metro deployed advanced equipment such as road-rail tank cars, tire-type track-laying machines, tire-type slab carriers, new-energy welding machines, and electric track-laying machines to rapidly lay track in continuous tunnel sections. For discontinuous sections, more than 600 workers were deployed at peak times in a "human wave tactic," working simultaneously at eight stations—Dazhongqiao Station, Fuzimiao Station, Chaotiangong Station, Yunnan Road Station, Shanxi Road Station, Fujian Road Station, Xiaguan Station, and Fangjiaying Station—carrying track-laying materials manually by hand and shoulder into the construction areas and seizing every opportunity, setting new track-laying records of 900 meters per day and 7 kilometers per month. Nanjing Metro increased inputs of manpower and equipment through various means to fully achieve the goal of completing track-laying ahead of schedule; the northern section's track-laying schedule took only one year yet completed approximately 33 kilometers of construction.

Line 5 is an important line in Nanjing's rail transit network, with a total length of 37.4 kilometers and 30 underground stations, constructed in two sections, south and north. On March 31 this year, the southern section of Line 5 was completed and opened for operation. As a "transfer king" crossing the main urban area, the southern section of Line 5 has 3 transfer stations, while the northern section has as many as 8 transfer stations. Once completed, the line will effectively ease traffic pressure on north-south roads in Nanjing and greatly improve traffic conditions in the urban area.