Aerial photo taken on Nov. 30, 2021 shows the main bridge of the Quanzhou Bay cross-sea bridge of the Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway in southeast China's Fujian Province.(Photo: Xinhua)

The last pair of 500-meter steel rails were laid at the Xiamen North Station in East China's Fujian Province on Tuesday, connecting with the provincial capital city of Fuzhou, which is the first cross-sea high-speed railway in China.

The Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway will boost the development of urban clusters in Fujian through reducing commute time. It is also an important part of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed rail network - a national medium- and long-term railway blueprint.

Using advanced machinery, workers were able to lay both tracks at the same time, nearly doubling their efficiency, with about 6 kilometers of track laid every day, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The 277.4-kilometer high-speed railway will cross three sea gulfs in the coastal province. The line will have eight stations and a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour. 

The travel time from Fuzhou to the tourist city of Xiamen will be shortened to just one hour.

The entire project is expected to be completed in 2023. Three stations in Quanzhou, a Fujian city along the rail line, are expected to meet standards for "static acceptance" in December, local newspaper Quanzhou Evening Paper reported. 

In November, a new bridge on a sea-crossing high-speed railway was joined, marking a major development of the project.

In the first half of the year, 2,043.5 kilometers of new rail lines were put into operation across China, according to China State Railway Group Co.

The country plans to launch new railway lines totaling 3,300 kilometers this year, according to the Ministry of Transport. By the end of 2021, the operating length of China's high-speed railway links had already surpassed 40,000 kilometers.

Global Times