Employees transport the components of a tunnel boring machine at a workshop of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co., Ltd. (CREG) in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 23, 2022. Tunnel boring machines made by CREG have been exported to more than 30 countries and regions for major projects, which are actively serving tunnel construction projects globally. (Xinhua)

An ultra-large-diameter shield tunnel boring machine has completed all 1,468 ring excavations, reaching the predetermined mileage, as part of China's deepest underwater tunnel - the Pearl River Tunnel, a section of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen Railway, according to the official WeChat account of the Shenzhen city government in South China's Guangdong Province on Tuesday.

The progress marked a milestone in the construction of Guangdong's Shenzhen-Jiangmen Railway.

The tunnel spans 13.69 kilometers, with engineers using two tunnel boring machines to excavate toward each other.

A section of the excavation path, with a length of 2,930 meters, reaches a maximum underwater depth of 115 meters with a maximum water pressure of up to 1.06 MPa, setting a record for the deepest underwater railway tunnel in China.

According to a WeChat post, the Shenzhen-Jiangmen Railway is a crucial component of the national high-speed rail network along the coast and a key infrastructure project within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.

As of Tuesday, two-thirds of the overall construction of the Pearl River Tunnel had been completed.

Global Times