On February 17, the first tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the Solomon Islands — the domestically produced "Shuangjing No. 1" TBM for the Tina Hydropower Station project undertaken by Sinohydro Bureau 9 Co., Ltd. under Power Construction Corporation of China (hereinafter referred to as the Company) — successfully passed factory acceptance and rolled off the production line in Changsha, Hunan Province.

It is reported that the "Shuangjing No. 1" TBM has a designed excavation diameter of 4.48 meters, a total length of approximately 86 meters, a weight of about 340 tons, and an installed power of about 960 kilowatts. It adopts a hard-rock composite cutterhead design and features multiple innovative technologies such as super-large thrust and torque reserves, an integrated manlock, and an advanced geological prediction system. Integrating mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, sensing, and information technologies, the equipment is an efficient and intelligent tunnel boring machine.

The "Shuangjing No. 1" TBM's paint scheme is based on the three colors of red, white, and blue. The "red" and "blue" echo the corporate identity of Power Construction Corporation of China, while the base pattern incorporates the leaping shark motif from the national emblem of the Solomon Islands, symbolizing strength and fearlessness. On both sides, the striking and symmetrical corporate culture logo of the Company — "Fine Craftsmanship in Construction, Splendid Bureau 9" — is dazzling and eye-catching. The overall design elements not only fully demonstrate the TBM's image of braving the wind and waves and forging ahead in engineering construction, symbolizing the vigorous development momentum of the Solomon Islands, but also profoundly convey the Company's beautiful vision of promoting the development of bilateral relations between China and the Solomon Islands through high-quality project delivery, building a bridge of friendship between the two sides, and injecting "Bureau 9 wisdom" and contributing "Bureau 9 strength" to the long-term development of the Solomon Islands in the field of major infrastructure construction.

The Solomon Tina Hydropower Station is located in the Tina River Basin on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands and is the largest hydropower project under construction in the Solomon Islands. The installed capacity of the station is 15 megawatts (three Francis turbine-generator units with a single-unit capacity of 5 megawatts each). The water diversion tunnel has a total length of 3,302.09 meters and consists of an inlet transition section, the diversion tunnel, and a surge shaft. TBM tunneling faces a series of challenges such as long-distance excavation, crossing fractured zones, and high-water-pressure operation, and is characterized by high construction difficulty, limited construction space, and frequent process transitions.

After the "Shuangjing No. 1" TBM is put into use, it will effectively enhance risk management and safety control in tunnel construction, comprehensively improve tunneling efficiency, complete the tunneling task of the hydropower station's water diversion tunnel in a safer, higher-quality, and more efficient manner, and provide solid technical support for project construction. As the largest livelihood project in the Solomon Islands, the Tina Hydropower Station project, once completed, can meet 68% of the electricity demand of the capital region of the Solomon Islands, benefiting more than 100,000 people.

"Shuangjing No. 1" domestically produced TBM

Solomon Tina Hydropower Station