China builds world’s largest diameter underwater shield tunnel at

Workers in China have set a new record by completing the task of building the world’s largest-diameter underwater shield tunnel.

The two mile section of the underwater shield segments is completed, as per reports. The section has a diameter of 55.8 feet (17 meters), and it has 500 pipe rings of underwater shielding.

Ninety-eight feet beneath the banks of the Yellow River, construction is still underway on the main section of the 3.6 mile tunnel that will run north-south along China’s Yellow River. The two-way tunnel will provide vehicles with three lanes in each direction and improve the region’s connectivity. It has a designed speed of 37.2 miles per hour (60 kmph).

China Railway 14th Bureau Group Co., Ltd. is building the tunnel in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province in East China. The completion time for such a monstrous task is also noteworthy and has set a new record.

Shanhe shield machine: The crucial machinery

The completion time for such a monstrous task is also noteworthy and has set a new record.

Construction on the tunnel began on September 1, 2024. In an unbelievably short period of time, just 110 days, workers finished the underwater shielding with one mega-big boring machine called the “Shanhe.”

The “Shanhe” has advanced 52.5 to 59 feet per day and 1396.6 feet per month, setting yet another new world record for 17-meter-class shield construction, ST Daily reports.

Manufactured by Herrenknecht, the gigantesque “Shanhe” is a mixshield boring machine that has an excavation diameter of 57.5 feet – or roughly five stories tall, as per New Atlas. The cutterhead driver boasts 7,510 horsepower with about 25,827,209 lb-ft (35,017 kNm) torque which equates to “26 million lb-ft of electric motors and hydraulic power.”

Other notable features in the cutting wheel comprise of a flushing system to prevent clogging, a telescopic camera system to avoid the need for potentially dangerous interventions by maintenance workers. It further has “a specialized automatic air cushion to balance pressure, maintain stability, and prevent collapse or flooding,” New Atlas explains.

One other amazing feat achieved by the machine is that it can withstand an impressive 7.5 times normal atmospheric pressure (7.5 bar). Furthermore, its excavation chamber side can handle up to 15 bar of pressure using a special automatic air cushion.

Though the boring machine is innovative and groundbreaking, the project team did run into challenges during construction, such as the one associated with waste slurry treatment.

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They tackled the problem with “a pioneering process” that even guaranteed “environmentally friendly tunneling.” They installed jaw crushers, developed a dual-line pipeline hydraulic quarrying device, and combined a waste slurry “concentration and filter press” system, the ST Daily report states.

Tunnel will improve connectivity in the province

At 55.8 feet in diameter, the Yellow River tunnel is the most significant example of its kind, but it’s not the longest at 3.6 miles. The Seikan in Japan is an “awe-inspiring” underwater tunnel that runs for 33.46 miles. There’s also the Channel Tunnel that connects UK and France – which is also long at 31.4 miles.

However, the Jinan Huanggang Road Tunnel will connect the north-south along the Yellow River, which is China’s second major river. The humongous project is slated for completion sometime around late 2025.

As Herrenknecht describes, the “major infrastructure project in Jinan, the capital of the Shandong Province in eastern China…aims to connect the urban area on the south side of the Yellow River with a new state-level strategic pilot zone for free trade, innovation and reform on the north side of the city.”

It will greatly improve transportation flow and enhance “the economic integration of the region,” they conclude by saying on their website.

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