Border of Chongming Island, rivers and seas meet. Under the water, the "Pirate" shield machine is digging towards Taicang, Jiangsu at a speed of 16 to 28 meters per day. The construction of the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel in the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu River High-speed Railway through Nanjing to Hefei section is in full swing. As a control project of Shanghai's high-speed railway through Nanjing to Hefei, the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel will end the history of Chongming Island's high-speed railway. By then, it will take only 17 minutes to reach Shanghai Baoshan Station via Taicang.

This tunnel is extraordinary: it has a total length of 14.25 kilometers and a single-headed excavation of 11.3255 kilometers. It is the tunnel with the longest single-headed excavation distance in the world. It is the designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, making it the world's highest driving speed underwater tunnel; the tunnel penetrates 89 meters deep under the Yangtze River and is the deepest under the Yangtze River tunnel.

As a major project, Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel is a test site for intelligent construction of tunnels in my country. The "Pilot" shield machine responsible for excavation is equipped with an intelligent tunnel construction system and has a "super brain" that can independently think, analyze and make independent judgments. It can realize independent excavation and achieve intelligent construction of "manned on duty and no man operates".

In the prefabrication process of pipe segments, the construction team has built the first fully digital pipe segment production line in China, realizing the automation of the entire process of steel bar processing, automatic surface collection, pipe segment steaming and maintenance; in the transportation process of pipe segments, long-distance intelligent transportation system is put into use; in the installation process of pipe segments, the construction team has developed an intelligent assembly robot for arc parts, which can realize one-click intelligent assembly of prefabricated arc parts, with a control accuracy of 0.5 mm... "From intelligent sensing shield machine to intelligent excavation, intelligent control and other comprehensive intelligence, represented by projects such as Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel, my country's tunnel construction is entering the era of intelligent construction." Xu Weiqing, project manager of Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel of China Railway Tunnel Bureau, said.

"As of the end of February, Shanghai's high-speed railway through Nanjing to Hefei completed an investment of 81.61 billion yuan." A relevant responsible person from the Yangtze River Coast Railway Group Co., Ltd. introduced.

Looking at the entire Shanghai-Chongqing-River High-speed Railway, projects such as Hefei to Wuhan, Wuhan to Yichang, Chengdu through Dazhou to Wanzhou, Chengdu-Chongqing mid-line, Yichang to Fuling section are all being carried out in an orderly manner.

The Dabie Mountain Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the Hefei-Wuhan section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Richter High-speed Railway, connecting Hubei and Anhui provinces.

Hubei Shizifeng Provincial Forest Park, Shizifeng Provincial Nature Reserve, Dabie Mountains National Geopark, Anhui Tianma National Nature Reserve... The tunnels have successively crossed many environmentally sensitive areas. The construction team used methods such as reducing inclined shaft exits and adding sewage treatment stations to minimize the impact of tunnel construction on the environment.

As one of the most important east-west high-speed rail "corridors" in my country, the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu River High-speed Railway is about 2,100 kilometers long, connecting the three major urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Delta, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu-Chongqing, which is an important support for accelerating the improvement of the railway network along the river.

At present, there are more than 600 round-trip trains between Shanghai and Nanjing every day, with an average of 2.7 minutes during the running time; an average of more than 2 million passengers take the Yangtze River Delta Railway every day. As of the end of 2024, the operating mileage of the Yangtze River Delta Railway exceeded 15,000 kilometers, of which the operating mileage of the high-speed railway exceeded 7,700 kilometers. With the steady advancement of the railway channels along the river, the "Yangtze River Delta on the Rail" will accelerate.

In the construction of the railway channel along the river, "soft construction" has made a lot of positive progress: in terms of planning, the "14th Five-Year Plan" outline has made overall arrangements for the construction of the comprehensive transportation system of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and issued and implemented policy documents such as the planning and construction of high-speed railways along the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River main line port rail and water transport facilities, focusing on key links and key and difficult issues such as regional connectivity, smooth network, and node opening, and accelerating the improvement of the railway network system along the river; in terms of policies, we adhere to "funds and factors follow the project", strengthen departmental linkage, coordinate and increase the guarantee of land use, environmental impact assessment, water conservation and other factors, broaden railway investment and financing channels, and increase central and local financial support; in terms of system and mechanism, strengthen overall coordination and promote the start of projects as soon as possible, and at the same time, promote the complementary and coordinated integration of railways and other modes of transportation, accelerate the development of rail-water transport, and reduce the logistics costs of the whole society.

Relevant responsible persons of the National Development and Reform Commission introduced that the railway channel along the river is an important main axis of the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation corridor of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and is of great significance to smooth economic circulation and promoting regional coordinated development. The construction goal is that by 2028, high-standard, large-capacity, and multi-path river high-speed rail channels will be basically completed, and the river high-speed rail arteries in both east-west and north-south banks will be basically completed. By then, Shanghai to Chongqing and Chengdu will achieve high-standard operation of 350 kilometers per hour on the entire line. The railway travel time from Chengdu and Chongqing to Shanghai will be reduced from the shortest of about 11.5 hours and 10.5 hours to about 7 hours and 5 hours respectively. The urban agglomerations and major cities in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt will be more closely connected, and the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle on the track will be basically completed.

"People's Daily" (Page 01, March 16, 2025)