【Domestic News】New Heights of Chinese Tunnels! China's First Intelligent Snow Pioneer TBM was Launched Successfully

On September 14, at the construction site of the plateau railway project of CRTG, China’s first large-diameter intelligent Snow Pioneer TBM, which is applied to the frigid plateau railway, was successfully launched, marking a new stage of the intelligent construction of long tunnels in the frigid plateau region in China.

 

Chairman of CRTG Yu Baolin Attended the Activities

 

The plateau railway tunnel is 37.9km long, of which 20.675km is constructed by CRTG. The tunnel is an extra-long and deep-buried tunnel with extremely complex geological conditions. It requires to face long-distance, large-section, high seismic intensity active areas, high in-situ stress rock burst, hard granite rock with high quartz content, and passes through the joint dense zones, altered rock zones, and water-rich fault fracture zones. This high-risk tunnel construction is a world-class tunnel construction problem.

 

In view of the extreme construction conditions of the tunnel, CRTG customized the Snow Pioneer TBM. In terms of high-efficiency rock-breaking and tunneling in long-distance and hard-rock conditions, it adopts a design with reinforced cutter head, heavy-duty disk cutters and reasonable cutter spacing. Meanwhile, the TBM main bearing also adopts special design, which can meet the requirement of TBM for long-distance driving under extreme conditions. In response to rock burst geology, an integrated rock burst detection system is installed, which can 24-hour monitor rock burst continuously, greatly improving the safety in rock burst areas.

 

 

Snow Pioneer TBM is the largest diameter TBM of railway in China, with a total length of 245 meters and a weight of about 2,500 tons. It will drive over 18km on the right line of the plateau tunnel, with an excavation diameter of 10.33 meters and a maximum advancing speed of 100mm/min, and can excavate a tunnel as high as a four-story building in a complex plateau geological condition.

 

The launch of Snow Pioneer TBM has achieved the remote control of railway TBM construction in China for the first time, and provided experience for improving the safety, convenience and continuity of TBM driving in extremely unfavorable and complex conditions.