Photo: Courtesy of CRCC

 
A homegrown tunnel boring machine independently developed by China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) broke out of the soil on Tuesday, completing construction of the first tunnel by CRCC in the Moscow Metro Southwest Line project.

The tunnel connects Slavic World Station and General Tyulenev Station and is 826 meters long.

The project is part of a contract for three intervals and auxiliary structures with a total length of 6.5 kilometers and a total investment value of 2.8 billion yuan ($398.7 million).

An earth pressure balance shield with a diameter of 6.28 meters undertook the tunneling task. A total of five shield machines have been working on the project, gaining experience of working in arctic soil.

The shield successfully dug below the Moscow Great Ring Road, built in the 1960s, in a 33-day-long operation without causing the land above to sink.

CRCC has pushed forward work resumption while maintaining epidemic control measures. 

Global Times