The Shantou municipal section of the "One Ring, One Ray" project of the East Guangdong Intercity Railway is about 54 kilometers long and has 13 stations. Among them, Times Square Station is a key station of the line's controlling works and will serve as the bidirectional launching station for the shield tunneling of the Zhongshan Road Tunnel. It is understood that the main components of the ** shield tunneling machine for the Shantou section have successively arrived at the Times Square Station construction site and are being lowered into the shaft and assembled as planned.

Shield machine components are hoisted and lowered into the shaft.

On the morning of July 17, at Times Square Station of the East Guangdong Intercity Railway, more than 400 construction workers braved high temperatures to make every effort to meet the schedule, advancing the construction of the station's main structure as well as the welding of the shield machine's cutterhead and the hoisting and lowering of components into the shaft. According to reports, the retaining structure, earthwork excavation and bracing at Times Square Station have all been completed, and about 60% of the station's main structure has been finished, meeting the conditions for lowering and assembling the ** shield machine. On the premise of ensuring safety and quality, efforts will be made to fully complete the topping-out of the station's main structure by the end of August.

The Zhongshan Road Tunnel of the East Guangdong Intercity Railway passes beneath the core area of Shantou's urban district, connecting four underground stations: Longhu Fuzhong, Times Square, Shantou No. 1 Middle School, and the Bus Terminal. It is planned to deploy two shield machines for bidirectional launching from Times Square Station. The ** shield machine will tunnel toward Longhu Fuzhong and be lifted out at the shield receiving shaft, namely at Children's Park. The shield machine's cutterhead and some of the trailers have arrived at the construction site, and welding, assembly and lowering into the shaft have begun.

The shield machine is being assembled and lowered into the shaft.

According to reports, the shield machine "tailor-made" for the Zhongshan Road Tunnel has an excavation diameter of 12.6 meters, equivalent to the height of a four-story building; the whole machine is 132 meters long, roughly the length of five high-speed rail carriages, and weighs more than 2,000 tons. An 800-ton crawler crane is used on site to hoist the shield machine's components in batches into the launching shaft more than 30 meters below ground, assembling them like "building blocks."

In the second half of this year, the construction contractor will accelerate the advancement of key projects such as Times Square, Shantou No. 1 Middle School and the Bus Terminal, strive to start shield tunneling in mid-October, and go all out to meet the annual targets.