en.Wedoany.com Reported - As a key node of the coastal corridor in China's "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network, the construction of the Pearl River Estuary Tunnel for the Shenjiang Railway has recently entered a critical shield tunneling phase. During the Qingming Festival period in April 2026, the domestically produced large-diameter shield tunneling machine "Shenjiang No. 1" continued its excavation at a depth of 113 meters below sea level, with an average daily progress of about 2 meters. The cumulative excavation distance has now exceeded 4 kilometers.
The Pearl River Estuary Tunnel is located at the mouth of the Pearl River between Dongguan and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, with a total length of 13.69 kilometers, traversing multiple waterways. This tunnel is a controlling project for the Shenjiang Railway, with its lowest point situated 116 meters underwater. Currently, "Shenjiang No. 1" is operating at an ultra-deep position of 113 meters underwater, enduring a pressure of 11.3 bar, setting a new world record for construction depth in underwater high-speed rail shield tunnels.
The construction site employs a "tunneling and segment assembly simultaneously" method. The tunnel, with a diameter of over 13 meters, is assembled from prefabricated segments, requiring 9 segments, each about 2 meters wide, per ring. The massive cutterhead at the front of the shield machine rotates to cut through rock and soil, transporting the excavated muck slurry to a surface slurry treatment plant via a circulation pipeline for screening and recycling.
During the excavation process, "Shenjiang No. 1" needs to traverse 13 types of geological strata, including 6 fault zones. Construction personnel use the positioning system and monitoring equipment in the control room to adjust the slurry flow rate, pressure, and tunneling direction in real-time, ensuring stable operation of the machine in complex geological conditions.
The main line of the Shenjiang Railway is 116 kilometers long, connecting Xili in Shenzhen with Jiangmen. Currently, over 7,000 construction workers are on-site for the Pearl River Estuary Tunnel section. As the shield tunneling distance surpasses the halfway point, the project will gradually transition from the ultra-deep sea area攻坚 phase to subsequent stages before the tunnel breakthrough. Upon completion, the project will achieve rapid rail connectivity between Shenzhen, Jiangmen, and the western Guangdong region.
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