By ashleykaren
CRCHI (China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation Ltd.) has manufactured the first shield tunnel boring machine for China’s Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project.
The 135m-long TBM has a diameter of 6.28m and will be operated on the D1 section tunnel of the project in the Beibu Gulf, constructing a 3.9km tunnel.
This section travels through heavily and lightly weathered metamorphic sandstones, while the rest crosses via fault breccia and limestone formations, with 25 developed faults in total.
CRCHI has equipped the slurry TBM with technology, containing the “multi-access+multi circuit” new slag discharge mode design to handle the complex geology. It tackles the problem of blockage of the silo and pipe generated by large particles, like fracture zones lagging at the bottom of the excavation silo.
The Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project will improve water supply capacity in Guangdong. Construction work began in August last year and is planned to take 96 months to finish. It is worth mentioning that this project is one of 150 water projects underway or scheduled in China.
