Changsha Xiangya Road River-Crossing Tunnel in China Opened to Traffic
On July 5th, 2024, Changsha Xiangya Road river-crossing tunnel was opened to traffic. The tunnel is the largest diameter shield machine tunnel in the Hunan Province of China. The opening of the tunnel will effectively alleviate traffic pressure on the nearby Yinpenling Bridge and Yingpan Road Tunnel, achieving the goal of interconnected networks and smooth traffic.
The tunnel was constructed using CRCHI (China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation Limited) large-diameter slurry TBM "Xingsheng". The TBM started the left line tunnelling on March 30th, 2021 and started the right line tunnelling on June 20th, 2022. The tunnel was broke through on March 12th, 2023 and was opened to traffic this month.
Built with a total investment of 5.33 billion yuan, the 4,180-meter-long Xiangya Road river-crossing tunnel project starts from Yuehua Road in Yuelu District in the west and extends to Furong Road in Kaifu District in the east. The river-crossing section is constructed using shield machine tunneling methods. It is about 1.4 km in length; the left line TBM tunnel is 1429 meters long, and the right line TBM tunnel is 1425 meters long.
It is the first two-way six-lane river-crossing tunnel in Changsha. The shield machine tunnel passed under the Xiangjiang River dike four times and crossed two riverbed fracture zones with more than 450 meters in length twice.
The "Xingsheng" slurry TBM has a maximum excavation diameter of 15.01 meters and an overall length of approximately 129 meters. The TBM adopted a heavy-duty composite cutterhead, high-wear and long-life cutting tools and a 7.6-meter heavy-duty main bearing design, which effectively resolved the impact issues on the cutterhead during excavation of the riverbed rock layers and composite strata. The frequency of cutter replacement was reduced, the excavation efficiency increased, and smooth construction of the tunnel was ensured.