Undersea tunnel now connects Guangdong and Macao
Guangdong, The Gulf Observer: A large-diameter undersea tunnel for light rail connecting China’s Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Guangdong Province was completed on Friday, the first of its kind for Macao’s Light Rapid Transit (LRT) extension.
The LRT extension, named Hengqin line, is 2.2 kilometers long with 900 meter being an underwater tunnel that connects Macao to its neighboring Hengqin Island in Zhuhai City of Guangdong Province. The 900-meter undersea tunnel crosses the Shizimen channel with an outer and inner diameter of 7.7 meters and 7 meters, respectively.
In order to address the soft layers of its surrounding ground, a tunnel boring machine with earth pressure balance (EPB) shield was designed by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry, and has been produced in Changsha City of central China’s Hunan Province.
