This certainly should be a challenging and interesting project. According the article, not only will this tunnel be the longest in the world, but also the largest tunnel in the world.
Right now, between the two connecting cities, travel is either an 869 mile drive over land, or an 8 hour ferry. With the tunnel, travel will be about 40 minutes, by rail car-carriage @ 136 miles per hour
The two connecting cities are Dalian, population 6.2 million, and Yantai, population 6.5 million.
The tunnel is expected to be completed by 2020.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_plans_to_build_worlds_longest_underwater_tunnel_999.html
Hope they don't hire the folks from Seattle. Might take a little longer than they had hoped.
Quote from: micjer on February 18, 2014, 10:29:34 PM
Hope they don't hire the folks from Seattle. Might take a little longer than they had hoped.
:) Actually I haven't gone back to look, but i did wonder if they might use the same tunnel making machine manufacturer for the equipment. I seem to remember that the Seattle machine was built in Japan??
If so, China probably will not be using a Japanese tunnel drilling machine!! :)
Edit: I did go back and look, and yes it was built by Hitachi in Osaka Japan.
http://gizmodo.com/big-bertha-is-digging-seattles-massive-underground-fre-662469199
QuoteChina's transport infrastructure has developed rapidly in recent years, particularly its high-speed rail network, which was only established in 2007 but has fast become the world's largest.
But while it is a symbol of China's emergence as the world's second largest economy, it has also been plagued by graft and safety scandals, such as a collision in July 2011 in the eastern province of Zhejiang that killed 40 people.
The accident caused a torrent of public criticism of the government amid accusations that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.
Perhaps cheapness is put before safety ?
The reason for so many deaths in their earthquakes is often due to landslides but their building
practices are perhaps Not the best...
But in saying this some improvement seems to be taking place in some areas.
In the past, unreinforced brickwork was common place in walls between beams and having a tiled
exterior cladding in housing areas.
Regarding their trains there has been some imported here, but have had "Reliability issues" ! >:(
"Asbestos Issues" now with Chinese made Trains imported into NZ !
http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/asbestos-in-kiwirail-locomotives-death-sentence-5854807
Well worth watching this short Video !
Check out the Video in this site !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11149495
Watch the Video on this site.. Chinese Tunnel Boring Machine in NZ,
The "Tunnel boring machine" is
3 + Traffic lanes wide or in
Diameter !
(http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/201344/SCCZEN_311013NZHGBBORE3_300x200.jpg)
QuoteAuckland's giant motorway tunnelling machine has been fired up for its two-year underground journey from Mt Albert to Waterview and back.
Ten-year-old Manukau boy Branden Hall, who won a schools competition to name the 2800-tonne ground-eater Alice, joined Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee in a deep trench in Alan Wood Reserve today to push the ignition button on the machine's 14.46m cutting head.
But after a few ceremonial turns, each taking about 30 seconds, the machine was shut down again for final checks before it can push off against a heavy steel "shove frame" for tunnelling to start next week
(http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/201330/boring_460x230.jpeg)
QuoteThe tunnel boring machine, the world's 15th largest, was built in China from a German design and shipped to Auckland in 97 containers before being reassembled next to where it will dig the first of the $1.4 billion Waterview motorway project's 2.4km twin tunnels.
It will spend a year travelling at up to 8cm a minute - about as fast as a snail - to Waterview where it will be dismantled, turned around, and re-assembled to dig the second tunnel in the opposite direction.
Transport Agency regional highways manager Tommy Parker congratulated the organisation's contracting alliance for completing the most significant milestone of what was a world-scale project, bang on time.
--- Mathew Dearnaley
Old News now it is Now Boring the 1st Tunnel, 3 Traffic Lanes wide !
Then it will bore the 2nd Tunnel back the other way for the other 3 Traffic Lanes.