Recently, the much-anticipated first cross-river underwater tunnel in Dongguan—the Hongfu West Road-Yinlong Road Cross-River Channel Project—has officially entered the construction phase of the dry dock retaining structure. On both the north and south banks, a total of more than 800 diaphragm walls, each about 0.8 m to 1 m thick and about 28.4 m to 42 m deep, are undergoing trenching construction at full speed. And it is the SANY heavy equipment—the SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter—that is breaking rock and safeguarding this "hidden dragon at the bottom of the abyss."

According to project personnel, this project is Dongguan's first immersed tube tunnel project, with a total length of 1.87 km, of which the tunnel itself is about 1.54 km long and consists of 3 tube sections, prefabricated using the axis-expanded dry dock method. Once completed, it will become a major transportation "artery" connecting the two central urban districts of Wanjiang and Nancheng, ensuring residents can "drive beneath the river." However, the complex geological conditions and traffic location mean that construction of this project is by no means easy.

During construction, the project team must overcome multiple major difficulties, including the large volume of rock excavation for the foundation trench, the narrow construction waters, the mixed and variable mudstone at the trench bottom, and the tight schedule. The wall-forming quality of the diaphragm walls of the main retaining structure directly affects the safety and progress of the subsequent dry dock construction and immersed tube prefabrication, allowing no room for carelessness.

This massive and arduous project has now become the best stage for the SANY SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter to "show its prowess." Two SANY SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutters are working in full cooperation on the north and south banks of the project, delivering outstanding performance in an operation mode that combines grab, drill, and mill processes.

"Fast, precise, and smarter" is the greatest praise from frontline construction personnel for the performance of the SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter. Faced with complex strata of mixed mudstone and varying degrees of weathering, the SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter, relying on its advantages in intelligent control technology, micro-feeding, and slag discharge efficiency, effectively achieves precise control of milling, pumping, and feeding. It can adapt to the milling needs of rock layers of different hardness and achieve efficient slag discharge in different strata and at different trenching depths, maximizing the effective utilization of operating power. At the same time, the equipment is equipped with 12 sets of deviation-correction devices to support real-time correction and can record data in real time and plot trenching curves, effectively ensuring trenching quality and precision—possessing both the power to break rock and the finesse to "thread a needle."

In the 41 m trench section data recorded by on-site operators, it can be seen that in rock strata with alternating medium and strong weathering, the SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter achieves an average penetration rate of up to 4 m/hour, ensuring stable construction progress with efficient operation. "The SANY dual-wheel cutter not only has strong power and fast rock penetration, but is also good at fine work, which has greatly accelerated our project construction!" On-site operators spoke highly of the performance of SANY equipment.

Tunneling beneath the river, turning natural barriers into thoroughfares! The performance of the SANY SDC120 dual-wheel trench cutter in the Dongguan cross-river channel project has been outstanding and impressive. On the path of supporting major transportation engineering construction and promoting coordinated urban regional development, SANY Piling Machinery will continue to strive forward, using high-quality equipment to help build more benchmark projects with excellent quality and reliable safety.