An 18.23-kilometre high-speed railway tunnel in Zhejiang Province, eastern China has recently been completed. The China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. (CRCC) stated in their announcement that the completion of the longest high-speed railway tunnel, the Dongming Tunnel has paved a solid foundation for the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou railway to be completed and put into service in 2021. The Dongming Tunnel will run through the cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Taizhou, all in Zhejiang Province. The tunnel has a total length of 271 km and a designed speed of 350 km/h and us among the first batch of public-private partnership pilot projects in China.
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This news comes soon after the announcement of the Anshun – Liupanshui high-speed line being opened, a high-speed line that was constructed with eight stations and 89km of tunnels and bridges and is an extension of the Shanghai – Kunming high-speed line, and connects Liupanshui to the national high-speed network.
Another accomplishment when it comes to China’s construction of tunnels is the 6,969-meter Houay Phoulai Tunnel, in northern Laos’ Oudomxay Province, some 400 km north of the Lao capital Vientiane, goes through harsh geological conditions, which makes its construction highly risky, and its completion lays a timely foundation for the coming beam setting and rail tracks’ installation. Located in the Luang Prabang geological suture zone, the tunnel crosses multiple large faults and geological fracture zones, with a maximum burial depth of 645 meters, unfavourable geology such as karst, rockburst, water inrush and mud outburst, and severe deformation of soft rock. Moreover, the tunnel is located in the tropical mountainous area of Oudomxay Province in northern Laos, and the traffic conditions are poor. The CREC-8 project department had to build 143 km of construction roads, overcoming incidents like landslides and mudslides in the rainy season.
