Wangjing Tunnel on Beijing-Shenyang HSR makes breakthroughs

Construction of the Wangjing Tunnel on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line successfully passed through the dense residential areas on April 25. The breakthrough marks significant progress in overcoming difficult engineering problems on the rail line.

The Wangjing Tunnel, with a length of 8,000 meters, is located in Chaoyang district of Beijing.

Although the Wangjing Tunnel is not the longest one on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line, it was among the toughest tunnels to build, according to Zhai Zhiguo, the project director of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei section of the rail line. He said that the Wangjing Tunnel is the only one adopting shield construction to avoid disturbing the normal lives of the many nearby residents.

The construction of the Wangjing Tunnel started at the end of December, 2017, and is scheduled to be finished this August.

The Beijing-Shenyang HSR is 709-kilometers long and starts at Xinghuo Railway Station in Beijing and connects Chengde in Hebei province with Chaoyang and Fuxing in Liaoning province, before eventually reaching Shenyang.

The line began construction in July 2014, with total investment of 124.5 billion yuan ($20.4 billion).

Upon completion, expected during 2019, the new line will shorten the current journey from six hours to just two and a half, as it can accommodate trains traveling at speeds of up to 350 km per hour, and there will only be 20 stations constructed along the new line.

The completion of the high-speed rail line will also greatly improve the transportation of goods in the region, as the Beijing-Shenyang line will connect to other main rail lines across China, such as the Beijing-Harbin Rail Line, Beijing-Shanghai Rail Line and the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Rail Line. Meanwhile, the current railway connecting Beijing to Shenyang has reached operational capacity.

A construction worker in the Wangjing Tunnel on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line on April 25 [Photo/Xinhua]

A construction worker operates a shield machine in the Wangjing Tunnel on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line on April 25. [Photo/Xinhua]

Interior view of the construction site of the Wangjing Tunnel on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line on April 25 [Photo/Xinhua]