The cutterhead of the “Ningwu” shield machine was successfully launched!

On August 3, the construction of the shield section of the Nanjing South Tunnel of the Ningwu Railway Expansion and Reconstruction Project undertaken by the 14th Bureau of China Railway ushered in new progress, and the cutterhead of the “Ningwu” shield machine with a diameter of 9.33 meters was successfully launched.

The realization of this important node lays a solid foundation for the smooth launch of the subsequent shield machine.

Nanjing South Tunnel is a full-line control project of the Ningwu Railway Expansion and Transformation Project, spanning Qinhuai District, Yuhuatai District and Jiangning District of Beijing City, Viet Nam, passing through Ning’an High-speed Railway, Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, Shanghai-Rong Railway and other trunk railways and Ningdan Highway, Niushou Avenue and other traffic arteries, with a total length of 14.442 kilometers, a single-hole single-track tunnel with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour. The shield section of the tunnel is about 2.4 kilometers long. Since May this year, the “Ningwu” shield machine has been shipped to Nanjing for assembly and commissioning after completing the factory manufacturing line in Changsha.

In the past few days, Nanjing has continued to have high temperatures and sunny weather, and the scorching sun has baked the construction site. The builders still persevered in the struggle and pushed forward the on-site assembly of the shield machine in an intense and orderly manner.

In the morning of the same day, the cutterhead of the 128-ton shield machine was lifted from the ground to the launch shaft by a crawler crane, slowly descended, and fell precisely into the predetermined position. During the whole process, the construction team strictly followed the predetermined plan to ensure the safety and accuracy of each link.

Shao Xiaoming, technical director of the second branch of the Ningwu Railway Project of the 14th Bureau of China Railway, introduced that the cutterhead cutter is the pioneer blade of the efficient tunneling of the shield machine. In view of the geological conditions of the tunnel, they equipped the “Ningwu” shield machine with 238 cutters, including 42 toothed disc cutters and 6 central duplex disc cutters, realizing the “full coverage” of the cutterhead excavation trajectory, and adding disc cutter wear detection to achieve real-time grasp of the cutter situation.

It is understood that the Ningwu Railway Expansion and Reconstruction Project starts from Nanjing East Marshalling Station (not included) in the north, enters Ma’anshan City in Anhui Province through Qixia District, Qinhuai District, Yuhuatai District and Jiangning District of Nanjing City, passes through Dangtu County into Wuhu City, and ends at Wuhu East Station (not included). After completion and operation, the layout of the regional railway network will be further optimized, which is of great significance for implementing the concept of “ecological priority and green development”, accelerating the upgrading and adjustment of the industrial structure of the regions along the line, optimizing the spatial layout of urbanization, and enhancing the flexibility of the road network.