Fast, safe and precise under rivers: XXL tunnel boring machines in the Yangtze River Delta
Feb 21, 2014
In 2013 four Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines tunnelled under major Chinese rivers and excelled with phenomenal speed, top safety levels and extreme precision. With gigantic diameters from 11.61 to 15.43 meters they drove double track metro tunnels and three-lane road tunnels. The structures provide key infrastructure for efficient transport systems in the Yangtze River Delta.
The Yangtze River Delta in East China developed rapidly to become one of the largest urban areas in the world. Accordingly, expansion of the infrastructure is progressing quickly too. In this connection numerous lakes and rivers need to be crossed under and over. In 2013 four breakthroughs by Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBMs) marked milestones in large tunnel construction in the region. On difficult crossings under rivers the high-tech machines demonstrated the efficiency and reliability of Mixshield technology from Herrenknecht.
Phenomenal speed – Nanjing Metro Line 10
"The Flying Dragon" became the nickname of the S-668 in Nanjing after it had impressed the Metro Line 10 site crew with its speed. The Herrenknecht Mixshield with a diameter of 11.61 meters crossed below the Yangtze River at up to 240 meters per week. On May 10, 2013, under the guidance of the site crew of the China Railway 14th Bureau Group, the machine successfully reached the target shaft.
The route ran along a length of 3.6 kilometers and at a depth of up to 58 meters below the water surface of the Yangtze River. Earth and water pressure of up to 6.5 bar weighed down on tunnel and machine. Herrenknecht engineers equipped the cutting wheel with special cutting wheel arms that are accessible at atmospheric pressure from the rear area of the shield. The cutting tools in the cutting wheel could thus be changed safely and economically while avoiding costly accessing in compressed air.
The China Railway 14th Bureau Group ordered the large diameter Mixshield S-668 in order to cross under the Yangtze River for Line 10 with a double-track tunnel instead of two single-track tunnels. The project success in Nanjing combined a number of superlatives in metro tunnelling under rivers in China: the longest tunnelling sector, the greatest depth, the highest ground water pressure as well as the largest diameter.
Top safety levels - Hangzhou Qiantang River Tunnel
The annual, up to nine meters high tidal wave of the Qiantang River at its mouth on the East China Sea is a tourist attraction. A road bridge for the much-needed link between the northern and southern highways threatened to disrupt the view of the national attraction. The planners in Hangzhou therefore opted for mechanized tunnelling with one of the world's two largest Mixshield tunnel boring machines. Tunnelling precision was required during drilling, because dam installations on the banks of the Qiantang protect the city of Hangzhou from flooding by the spring tide from the ocean. The dams were not allowed to be damaged under any circumstances. The customer therefore relied on the safe Mixshield technology from Herrenknecht.
After the start of tunnelling, the TBM crossed under the Qiantang twice over a length of 3.25 kilometers and at a depth of up to 27.6 meters. With the breakthrough on January 18, 2013 the Mixshield S-593 with a diameter of 15.43 meters completed its work with optimum values: with a maximum of 2.36 centimeters, all subsidence measurements on the ground surface remained well within the limits defined by the authorities. The site crews of Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd (STEC) achieved rates of up to 464 meters per month.
Extreme precision – West Changjiang Road River Tunnel
Extreme precision was a priority during the advance of the Mixshield S-569 in Shanghai for the construction of two three-lane road tunnels. In the 15 million inhabitant, densely built up mega metropolis, it gets cramped underground as well. The Mixshield TBM with a diameter of 15.43 m drilled its way forward with only one meter leeway between the foundations of urban highway and railway line before it dived under the Huangpu River. The drilling specialists of STEC used a system for precise real-time monitoring of the shield position to handle the 40-meter long passage. With the same precision and safety, passing beneath 30 buildings was mastered as well as the advance in the immediate vicinity of 20 underground supply lines. With the breakthrough on June 19, 2013 the second of the two largest Mixshield machines in the world successfully completed its work in Shanghai.
Greatest depth – Shanghai Hong Mei Road
Also in Shanghai, a few kilometers upstream from the "West Changjiang Road River Tunnel", the Herrenknecht Mixshield S-666 is in operation. With a diameter of 14.9 meters it is creating the longest and deepest lying road tunnel under the Huangpu River. Over 3.4 km the TBM is achieving advances of up to 132 meters per week at depths of up to 59 meters below the water surface. After the first breakthrough on July 8, 2013 the STEC site crew checked all machine components and replaced necessary wear parts. Since December 28, 2013 the tunnel builders have been advancing the second tube in the opposite direction.
Herrenknecht has the world's highest density of references in successful project completions for large and very large tunnel cross sections. Over 300 kilometers of tunnels with diameters greater than 11 meters have already been successfully driven with Herrenknecht technology.
4 x Herrenknecht Mixshields for major projects in the Yangtze River Delta, China | ||||
Project | Nanjing Metro Line 10 S-668 | Hangzhou Qiantang River Tunnel S-593 | West Changjiang Road River Tunnel S-569 | Shanghai Hong Mei Road S-666 |
Location | Nanjing | Hangzhou | Shanghai | Shanghai |
Application | Metro tunnel | Road tunnel | Road tunnel | Road tunnel |
Diameter | 11,610 mm | 15,430 mm | 15,430 mm | 14,900 mm |
Tunnel length | 3.6 km | 6.5 km | 3.1 km |
3.4 km (a total of 6.8 km) |
Breakthrough | 5/10/2013 | 1/18/2013 | 6/19/2013 |
7/8/2013 (1st tunnel) |
More News and Articles
Aug 28, 2024
News
ITpipes Secures $20M to Transform Water Infrastructure Management
ITpipes announced it has secured $20 million in equity financing from Trilogy Search Partners and Miramar Equity Partners.
Known for its trusted and user-friendly platform, ITpipes …
Aug 26, 2024
News
Professor Dr.-Ing. Dietrich Stein
With deep sadness we announce the loss of our founder and partner Prof Dr Dietrich Stein at the age of 85.
Engineers around the globe are thankful for his dedication to the inventions in the fields of sewers, …
Aug 26, 2024
News
PPI Releases New Installation Guide for PE4710 Pipe
PPI’s MAB-11-2024 Covers HDPE Water Pipelines Up to 60-in. Diameter and 10,000-ft Long Pulls
Developed by the Municipal Advisory Board (MAB) – and published with the help of the members of the …
Aug 23, 2024
News
Faster wide-scale leak detection now within reach
Mass deployment of connected leak loggers is being made possible by the latest technology, writes Tony Gwynne, global leakage solutions director, Ovarro
Water companies in England and Wales are …
Aug 21, 2024
News
Kraken awakens customer service potential in water
The innovative customer service platform Kraken has made a successful transfer from energy to water. Ahead of their presentation at UKWIR’s annual conference, Portsmouth Water chief executive …
Aug 19, 2024
News
Predicting the toxicity of chemicals with AI
Researchers at Eawag and the Swiss Data Science Center have trained AI algorithms with a comprehensive ecotoxicological dataset. Now their machine learning models can predict how toxic chemicals are …
Aug 16, 2024
News
Goodbye water loss: Trenchless pipe renewal in Brazil
Pipe renewal in Brazil
How do you stop water loss through leaks in old pipe systems without major environmental impacts and restrictions? The answer: with trenchless technology, or more precisely …
Aug 14, 2024
Article
Impact of high-temperature heat storage on groundwater
In a recently launched project, the aquatic research institute Eawag is investigating how the use of borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) affects the surrounding soil, the groundwater …
Aug 12, 2024
News
Watercare completes East Coast Bays sewer link
Watercare has successfully finished the final connection on the East Coast Bays link sewer at Windsor Park in New Zealand.
Much of the East Coast Bays sewer link was installed using horizontal directional …
Aug 09, 2024
Article
Innovative water solutions for sustainable cities
Cities need to become more sustainable and use their water resources more efficiently. Managing water in local small-scale cycles is one possible solution. A new white paper by Eawag, the University …
Aug 07, 2024
Article
How digital technologies contribute to universal drinking water
Digital water technologies have an important role in ensuring universal access to safe drinking water by 2030, that is according to a new report from the World Health Organisation. …
Aug 05, 2024
News
Knowledge transfer on sustainable water infrastructure in India
India’s fast-growing cities need an efficient infrastructure for water supply and wastewater disposal. A research cooperation, is therefore supporting the development of a sustainable …
Contact
Herrenknecht AG
Achim Kühn
Schlehenweg 2
77963 Schwanau
Germany