Rotary drilling equipment is scattered everywhere

Transport vehicles shuttle back and forth

……

Construction of the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport project is in full swing

The airport terminal project officially started in mid-October; the first building-construction project of the new airport, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport Project Management Department, was completed and put into use in late October.

Scientific preparation of the project plan and efficient advancement of construction stages are constantly refreshing the construction "progress bar" of the new airport project.

The terminal design adopts an innovative two-level radial configuration, with the central main building connecting six boarding corridors, compactly laying out 78 close-in aircraft stands; the open harbor allows aircraft to enter and exit in both directions.

What exactly does the new airport look like?

What is the overall project plan?

What is the current construction progress?

Recently, reporters walked into the busy construction site to visit the Dalian New Airport under construction. The project's "central brain" — the Project Management Department — has begun operating. Overlooking the construction site of the Dalian New Airport project, on the land reserved for future phases, the newly risen Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport Project Management Department stands out.

The Project Management Department covers an area of 34,000 square meters, with a total floor area of 14,000 square meters, and consists of six buildings.

As the first building-construction project of the works, the Project Management Department started construction on July 31 and completed construction efficiently and with high quality in 81 days; it is now officially in use.

The Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport Project Management Department, now in use.

The Project Management Department is the "central brain" of the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport project construction, integrating decision-making, consultation, coordination and control functions. It includes a digital construction command center, a new airport planning exhibition center, and supporting office and living facilities. The project command headquarters, construction management, design consulting and other units are concentrated here, and it can accommodate more than 500 people at the same time.

The project adopts structural forms such as independent column foundations and steel-frame structures, achieving the best combination of construction schedule, capital investment and functional use.

With the completion and commissioning of the Project Management Department, the new airport project construction is now focused on key projects including the pile foundation works for the terminal and the elevated bridge in front of it, the deep foundation treatment works in the terminal area, the temporary power works, and the acceptance of sea area use.

The "invisible backbone" of the airport's main structure consists of more than 3,000 rock-socketed piles

Accompanied by the roar of rotary drilling rigs, the pile foundation works for the Dalian New Airport terminal and the elevated bridge in front of it are proceeding vigorously. Pile foundation equipment capable of generating 40 tons of pressure slowly presses casings up to 1.6 meters in diameter into the soil layer, laying a safe, stable, earthquake-resistant and durable "invisible backbone" for the airport's main structure.

According to Li Xiang, chief engineer of Dalian Airport Construction and Development Co., Ltd.:

"The start of the pile foundation works marks the official entry of the airport terminal project into the construction stage. The entire works consist of more than 3,000 rock-socketed piles, with pile diameters of 1.2 to 1.6 meters and maximum pile lengths exceeding 80 meters, three times the pile length of conventional land-based airports. The total construction period is about one and a half years."

The pile foundation works are key to ensuring the smooth advancement and on-schedule completion of the entire airport construction project.

Previously, the preliminary design and budget estimate for the first batch (terminal area and part of the airfield area works) of the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport were officially approved at the end of September, providing an important basis and guidance for the project.

The pile foundation works require pouring about 400,000 cubic meters of concrete and using 43,000 tons of steel rebar. The currently started pile foundation works for the terminal and the elevated bridge in front of it cover a total area of 200,000 square meters.

The geological conditions of the Dalian New Airport project are complex, with karst geological conditions in the deep bedrock, making borehole formation difficult, with a tight schedule and high quality requirements, posing great challenges to construction.

To ensure the smooth progress of pile foundation construction, the airport organized trial pile works in the early stage, experimentally exploring construction techniques suitable for the new airport's conditions, including borehole formation, rebar cage lowering, concrete pouring and post-grouting. All 16 piles passed testing to high standards, with bearing capacity meeting design requirements, providing an important basis for pile foundation design.

At the same time, detailed surveys were carried out during construction to ensure that pile tips enter stable rock layers, so as to meet the design bearing capacity requirements of the piles.

To ensure the smooth progress of pile foundation construction, the airport organized trial pile works in the early stage.

This pile foundation works adopts a phased construction and phased acceptance approach, creating conditions for the main structure works.

The pile foundation works and the terminal main structure works are being advanced in overlapping sequence; main structure foundation construction is planned to begin 8 months after pile foundation construction.

Zhang Bin, head of the pile foundation works for the terminal and the elevated bridge in front of it, introduced:

"At peak times we deploy 50 to 60 large rotary drilling rigs, 10 large full-slewing rigs and 800 to 1,000 personnel, working around the clock in 24-hour shifts. The expected pile completion rate is 10 to 15 piles per day, striving to complete the construction of nearly 1,000 cast-in-place piles in the core area before the end of the year."

Deep foundation treatment in the terminal area is scheduled for completion next year. The Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport is a large hub airport with construction land provided by offshore reclamation. Deep foundation treatment is of great significance for effectively controlling post-construction settlement, uneven settlement and differential settlement of the foundation, and is an important process step for ensuring the stable operation of the new airport in the future.

The deep foundation treatment construction area in the terminal area is about 800,000 square meters, mainly covering the future terminal, the transportation land in front of the terminal, and the areas where main and secondary roads intersect; it is scheduled for completion next year.

Adapting to local conditions and optimizing construction techniques. In March this year, the preliminary design of the new airport's deep foundation treatment works was approved by the municipal government; in the same month, the construction drawing design and review for deep foundation treatment in the terminal area were completed.

Based on the future functional planning of each area and in combination with different land formation methods and geological conditions, the project adopts construction forms such as dynamic compaction, vibro-replacement stone columns, jet grouting piles and mixing piles to carry out deep foundation treatment in different areas of the terminal area, reasonably controlling the construction schedule and cost while ensuring the design and construction effects are achieved.

The trial piles all passed testing to high standards, with bearing capacity meeting design requirements.

Flow-line operations and overlapping advancement of construction in the terminal core area. To ensure that the terminal main structure works start on schedule, the airport has continuously optimized construction organization and design, advancing reclamation, geological survey and deep foundation treatment in overlapping sequence to maximize the creation of construction land conditions for the terminal.

Deep foundation treatment in the terminal area follows the principle of urgency first and need second. The first batch of treatment areas covers the 78,000-square-meter terminal core area, carried out simultaneously in 5 zones and 15 flow-line sections, completed within 60 days, creating conditions for the start of the terminal pile foundation works. At the same time, according to the construction plan, dynamic compaction of the transportation land in front of the terminal will also be fully completed within the year. Water and power support is advancing steadily; reclamation has completed 81% of the total artificial island area

Water and power support are important basic guarantees for the construction of the Dalian New Airport artificial island. The temporary water supply pipeline runs from Bohai Road to the artificial island, with a total length of 6.9 kilometers. At present, the pipeline has been fully connected and officially began supplying water on August 12, providing basic guarantees for personnel work and living water during large-scale construction on the island.

Reclamation operations have cumulatively formed 1,628 hectares of land, accounting for 81% of the total artificial island area.

The temporary power works started on September 19 and are divided into three parts: off-island power transmission, on-island substation and island-wide distribution, with an overall construction period of 140 days; they are scheduled for completion and official power supply before the end of the year. This project will completely end the current situation in which construction on the island can only rely on temporary power generation equipment, providing safe, stable and continuous power supply guarantees for the new airport artificial island.

Since the beginning of this year, the Dalian New Airport project construction has been anchored to the backfilling tasks in the terminal area and airfield area, carrying out reclamation operations in an orderly manner. In the first three quarters, a total of 150 hectares of land was formed, cumulatively forming 1,628 hectares, accounting for 81% of the total artificial island area.

This phase builds two runways and a 500,000-square-meter T1 terminal, with an annual passenger throughput of 43 million

The Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport project adheres to a global vision, international standards, regional characteristics and a high-point stance, benchmarking the construction experience of large airports at home and abroad to create a world-class, domestically leading modern aviation new hub.

As China's first offshore "artificial island" airport, it has a land area of 20 square kilometers, good airspace conditions and a superior geographical location. The project is designed to the 4F operational class standard, with plans to build 4 runways and a 900,000-square-meter terminal.

The project is built in two phases. This phase plans to build two long-distance parallel runways, 3,600 meters and 3,400 meters long respectively; a 500,000-square-meter T1 terminal capable of meeting the usage demand of an annual passenger throughput of 43 million, cargo and mail of 550,000 tons, and 330,000 aircraft movements.

The long-term project plans to expand with two additional runways and a 400,000-square-meter terminal, capable of meeting the usage demand of an annual passenger throughput of 80 million, cargo and mail of 1.5 million tons, and 540,000 aircraft movements. After completion and commissioning, Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport will be closed.

The terminal's forward-looking design meets efficient operation and conveys beautiful meanings

What does the Dalian New Airport terminal look like?

As can be seen from the renderings—

The terminal design adopts an innovative two-level radial configuration, with the central main building connecting six boarding corridors, compactly laying out 78 close-in aircraft stands; the open harbor allows aircraft to enter and exit in both directions, enabling efficient operation.

Dispersed security check areas make the walking distance of each corridor approximately uniform; the walking distance for passengers passing through security is only 320 meters, maximizing boarding efficiency.

The terminal interior is transparent, spacious and bright; the ticketing hall is grand in scale, and the bright skylights on the roof extend in three directions, guiding the direction of passenger flow.

While meeting efficient operation, the terminal design also incorporates vivid humanistic concepts. The front columns and eaves of the terminal resemble flying bird wings and surging waves, vividly expressing the beautiful meaning of "born toward the sea, soaring like the Kunpeng." The coral-shaped branching columns inside the building create a distinctive interior effect, and aquarium landscape features are introduced at multiple points, highlighting Dalian's blue ocean cultural characteristics and enhancing the humanistic appeal of the hub airport.

The front columns and eaves of the terminal resemble flying bird wings and surging waves, vividly expressing the beautiful meaning of "born toward the sea, soaring like the Kunpeng."

Digital empowerment, innovation-driven dynamic control, creating conditions for schedule advancement

In accordance with the construction requirements of a "safe airport, green airport, smart airport and humanistic airport," the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport is using craftsmanship to create a new benchmark for "four-type airports." The project adheres to an innovation-driven concept throughout the entire process from design to construction, using technologies such as building information modeling and digital construction to achieve intelligent construction. Based on technologies such as digital twins, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, mobile interconnection and artificial intelligence, it builds an airport information hub, striving to achieve the development goal of "Smart Jinzhou Bay, Digital Hub Port."

Taking the dynamic compaction in the deep foundation treatment works of the terminal area as an example, to ensure construction quality, monitoring terminals and digital sensors are installed on the compactors and tamper weights to collect key construction data such as the position of compaction points, tamper height, number of blows and energy level at any time, and upload them to the back-end monitoring system, providing data support for the quality acceptance of subsequent deep foundation treatment works. Through digital empowerment, the project achieves full-process construction quality monitoring.

According to reports, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport project will adopt a multi-level guarantee system, compacting safety production responsibilities at every level and strengthening quality assessment, striving to build a "century project."

At the same time, smart means are used to collect on-site construction data and carry out integrated management, achieving dynamic control of production factors and creating favorable conditions for advancing the overall project schedule.

Building a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation hub integrating "sea, land, air and rail" to meet high-quality travel demand with "zero transfer"

It is worth mentioning that the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport has a 50,000-square-meter comprehensive transportation center that efficiently connects land-side transportation modes such as the subway, taxis, buses, private cars and ride-hailing vehicles.

The rail station connects directly to the terminal, being people-oriented, convenient and fast, maximizing the design concept of "zero air-rail transfer."

Three cross-sea express corridors connect the land and the island, reaching the city's core area directly in 20 minutes. This phase plans the central corridor to connect with Bohai Avenue and the Guangming Road extension, and the western corridor to connect with Donglian Road and the Shenhai Expressway; the long-term plan for the eastern corridor will allow direct access to Jinpu New Area via Wuyi Road.

This phase plans for Metro Line 1 and Line 5 to enter the island on a shared alignment, with Line 9 reserved for future entry to the island.

After completion, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport will achieve "three-port linkage" with Dalian North Station and Dalian Bay Passenger Transport Station, forming an interconnected and shared comprehensive three-dimensional transportation hub network system integrating "sea, land, air and rail," comprehensively improving the city's modern infrastructure functions and better meeting passengers' high-quality travel needs.