At 10:00 on August 28, at the construction site of the Xiang'er shield shaft on the Nansha-Zhongshan (Zhong) Intercity Railway, the shield machine "Suiyue" was successfully launched, and the tunnel section from the Xiang'er shield shaft to the Ershiyong Station of the Nansha-Zhongshan (Zhong) Intercity Railway officially entered the shield construction stage.

On August 28, the shield machine "Suiyue" was launched at the construction site of the Xiang'er shield shaft on the Nansha-Zhongshan (Zhong) Intercity Railway.

The Guangzhou Nansha to Zhuhai (Zhongshan) Intercity Railway (Nansha Wanqingsha-Zhongshan Xingzhong section) and its synchronously implemented works have a total line length of 47.6 kilometers. Among them, the tunnel section from the Xiang'er shield shaft to the Ershiyong Station has a total length of 3,156.87 meters and is being bored by a slurry balance shield machine "Suiyue" with an excavation diameter of 13.61 meters. This tunnel is the shield tunnel with the largest diameter, the longest single-head boring distance, and the most complex geological and environmental risks on the entire line.

According to reports, the launch of the "Suiyue" shield machine immediately faces the risk of deep water-rich sand layers, and will subsequently cross the Hongqili Waterway over a long distance in soft water-rich strata, pass in close proximity to sensitive buildings and structures such as the Nanzhong Expressway and Wanhuan West Road, and finally arrive at the receiving point under a cover depth of less than 0.7 times the tunnel diameter (i.e., shield breakthrough, the last key step in shield tunnel construction). It features complex geological conditions, high safety risks, and great construction difficulty, and is a key controlling project of the entire line.

The "Suiyue" shield machine has a total length of 137 meters, a total weight of about 3,500 tons, and a total power of 10,220 kilowatts. It is equipped with an atmospheric cutterhead, cutter rotation monitoring, wear detection, and excavation chamber monitoring systems, which can ensure a comprehensive grasp of the working status of the cutterhead and cutters and the conditions of the tunnel face during boring, providing a basis for boring parameter control. It has a telescopic and swinging main drive, which can simplify the cutter replacement procedure and make cutter replacement more convenient and efficient. It features advanced horizontal drilling and simultaneous dual-fluid grouting functions, which can provide safety guarantees for construction under complex geological conditions and effectively improve the quality of the formed tunnel.

The Nansha-Zhongshan (Zhong) Intercity Railway is an important project for improving the layout of the intercity railway network in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Once completed, it will be connected and operated with Guangzhou Metro Line 18, Guangzhou Metro Line 22, the Guanghua Intercity Railway, and the Fangbai Intercity Railway, effectively promoting the deep integration of the Guangzhou metropolitan area and the Pearl River Estuary West Bank metropolitan area, and advancing the construction of the Greater Bay Area's "half-hour traffic circle" and "Greater Bay Area on rails" with improved quality and speed.