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Alice Li

China finished the first high-speed railway tunnel under the Yangtze River on Friday, marking a major step forward in the construction of a line that will one day connect the inland of the country with the coast.
The 11.9km (7.4-mile) Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel links two districts in Chongqing and will be a key link in a high-speed line between two key hubs in the southwestern megacity and Xiamen in the southeastern province of Fujian.
The project had to overcome the challenges posed by the city’s geography and dense urban landscapes as it tunnelled beneath mountains, residential areas and riverbeds.
The constructor, China Railway 14th Bureau Group, used a customised boring machine – named Changjiang, the Chinese name for the Yangtze – which can withstand high water pressure while cutting through alternating rock layers deep under the riverbed, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.
The Chongqing-Xiamen line, sections of which are already in service, is one of the 16 high-speed rail corridors that Beijing aims to “substantially complete” by 2030 and boost connectivity between the country’s main metropolitan clusters.
The network – formed of eight north-south and eight east-west routes – stretches as far as Gansu province in the northwest, the cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen on the southern coast, and transport hub Harbin in the northeast.
By March, construction work on the grid was already 84 per cent complete, according to state-owned China Railway Group.
“We will enhance the capacity and structure of our railway network over the next five years,” Wang Qiming, deputy head of the National Railway Administration, told a press conference on Tuesday.
“This includes speeding up the completion of the ‘eight vertical and eight horizontal’ high-speed rail network, enhancing connections among key regions, and improving commuter transit across major city clusters.”


By the end of last year, China’s high-speed rail network had passed the 50,000km mark, with the government aiming to expand it to around 60,000km within the next five years.
Increasing numbers of long underwater rail tunnels are being built as a result of this drive to expand the high-speed rail network.
These include a major crossing linking Shanghai’s Chongming Island with Taicang in Jiangsu province, which is expected to be finished this year.
Meanwhile in the southern province of Guangdong, the world’s deepest underwater high-speed rail tunnel, which will reach depths of 116 metres (380 feet), is being built under the Pearl River estuary as part of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen link.


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The rail tunnel measures nearly 12km in length. Photo: Handout

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The Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel in Chongqing will form a key section in a new line linking the megacity with the southeast coast


The Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel in Chongqing will form a key section in a new line linking the megacity with the southeast coast.


Wang Yiming

National Railway Administration (China)

China completes first high-speed rail tunnel under the Yangtze River

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel in Chongqing will form a key section in a new line linking the megacity with the southeast coast

The Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel in Chongqing will form a key section in a new line linking the megacity with the southeast coast