How China is building faster high-speed railways using vast underwater tunnels

China is building a high-speed rail tunnel stretching more than 14km (9 miles) under the Yangtze River between Shanghai and Taicang, Jiangsu province.

Photo: People’s Daily China has finished digging the underwater section of a high-speed rail tunnel stretching more than 14km (9 miles) under a busy segment of the Yangtze River, as the country increasingly turns to vast subterranean passages to expand its railway network.

The tunnel beneath China’s longest waterway, which will link Shanghai’s Chongming Island with Taicang city in neighbouring Jiangsu province, is on track to be completed by the end of the year, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The project will allow trains to hurtle through the tunnel at 350km/h (217mph), enabling faster connections between cities on China’s populous eastern coastline and Hefei, the capital of nearby Anhui province, according to state media reports.

It is part of a new high-speed railway that will eventually stretch 2,000km westwards to Chengdu – a flagship project in China’s latest five-year plan that will reportedly involve a total investment of more than 500 billion yuan (US$72 billion).

A tunnel boring machine emerged from the Yangtze shoreline on Sunday, after spending nearly two years punching a passageway with a 15-metre (49-foot) diameter under the river, according to People’s Daily.

The tunnel is the longest of its kind ever constructed in China, it added.

Long underwater railway tunnels are becoming more common in China, as the country focuses on creating efficient, integrated cross-regional transport networks.

The country has at least six such tunnels on the books so far. “We are now at a stage where transport integration is prioritised, so various means of transport need to take one another into account,” said David Feng, an independent Chinese railway specialist.

In Shanghai, for example, the tunnel will ensure the railway avoids the busy shipping lanes on that segment of the river, allowing trains to maintain speed even as they cross the waterway, according to Feng. “It goes underneath a main artery of navigation on the Yangtze – think supersized ships that need to pass through,” he said.

China already has high-speed rail lines connecting Shanghai, Chengdu and the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.

But a new, faster railway will still add value due to the sheer scale of the cities’ economies and populations, Feng suggested. “Given how important these conurbations are, there’s every need for a who

原文链接: 南华早报