Pile foundation construction site. Photo courtesy of Hangzhou Communications Investment Group

On December 30, the pile foundation works of the Hangzhou Qiantang Hub were successfully completed, marking a new breakthrough in the project's construction and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent construction of the station building's main structure.

Qiantang Station is located in Fenglou Village, Xinwan Subdistrict, Qiantang District, Hangzhou. It is an important component of the Hangzhou Airport High-Speed Railway, the "origin point" of the future Qiantang High-Speed Rail New City area, and a key node in the multi-level rail transit network of the Yangtze River Delta.

The total construction area of the Qiantang Station building and related works is approximately 280,000 square meters, including about 70,000 square meters for the railway station building and about 210,000 square meters for the comprehensive supporting works. Qiantang Station is an elevated station built above the tracks, with a station yard scale of 6 platforms and 11 tracks, capable of originating and terminating services; passenger flow in and out of the station adopts an "up-in, down-out" circulation pattern. The hub will incorporate Metro Line 8 and Line 19 (planned), bringing together high-speed rail, metro, and other multi-level transportation networks to form a fully connected transportation hub.

The Qiantang Station hub project began construction in June 2024. The station building's pile foundation works are characterized by a "large quantity, many types, and novel pile types." There are approximately 4,200 piles in total, including cast-in-place concrete piles, pre-drilled root-embedded piles, and slow-bonded prestressed cast-in-place piles. Among these, the pre-drilled root-embedded pile is a new process pile type, applied for the first time in the parking building area of the comprehensive supporting works, further shortening the construction period and accelerating the overall pile foundation construction progress.

To ensure pile quality, the project site operates a 24-hour shift system, ensuring that once a pile foundation process is qualified, the next process begins immediately, greatly reducing the exposure time of pile holes and improving project quality and efficiency.

Pile foundation construction site. Photo courtesy of Hangzhou Communications Investment Group

At present, the Qiantang Hub has entered the foundation earthwork excavation stage. In 2025, the construction of the station building's main structure will be comprehensively accelerated, completing the station building's deep foundation pit works and the main structure of the supporting parking building.

After the project is completed, it will achieve a seamless transfer integration of "high-speed rail + intercity rail + metro." After landing at Xiaoshan Airport, passengers can reach Qiantang Station in one stop and then take high-speed rail to core cities in the Yangtze River Delta such as Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou, boosting economic development in eastern Hangzhou.

It is worth noting that the Qiantang Station hub project draws its design inspiration from "sails on the river and sea, braving the tide," with a "tide-shaped" form as its design highlight, a "tide center" as its design concept, and convenience and practicality as its design orientation. It implements the TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) model, integrating transportation, commerce, offices, and leisure, and creating diverse leisure spaces. It innovatively adopts a "growable" "flexible space" design approach, flexibly adjusting and fully utilizing the station building space so that passengers can enjoy colorful moments while waiting. It adheres to the organic integration of station and city and the mixed use of land, building urban units such as Tide Park, Tide Center, and Tide Headquarters in the station area, opening a new chapter of "the city right outside the station, the hub as a garden, and space as trend."