Work on the tunnel project of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen rail was inaugurated Thursday in Nansha, Guangzhou, near the mouth of the Pearl River.
The tunnel is 13.69 kilometers in length and is scheduled to be completed in 56 months. It will be the deepest tunnel bearing the heaviest water pressure in China, the Jiangmen section construction headquarters of Guangzhou Railway Group Corp. said.
The project marks the start of the 116-kilometer rail line that will go 45 kilometers underground and along a 69.2-kilometer bridge.
The rail, a key project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is part of Shenzhen-Maoming High-speed Railway.
The construction plan of Guangzhou Railway Group Corp. shows the 51.3 billion yuan (US$7.27 billion) project starts from Xili Station in Nanshan District, and passes through Bao’an, Dongguan, Zhongshan to end in Jiangmen. It has seven stations: Xili, Shenzhen Airport, Binhaiwan, Nansha, Zhongshan North, Henglan and Jiangmen.
Simultaneously, a 20.4-kilometer rail line will be built to link Shenzhen Airport Station with Shenzhen North Railway Station, and regional links of the 12.6-kilometer line will be built in Jiangmen and Zhongshan.
The Shenzhen-Jiangmen rail is part of the Shenzhen-Maoming high-speed rail, an important line of the national network comprising eight horizontal rail lines and eight vertical rail lines. The construction of the Shenzhen-Maoming rail has been divided into the Jiangmen-Maoming section and the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section.
The Jiangmen-Maoming section has been put into operation. Upon completion of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section in 2024, the trip from Qianhai to Nansha will be cut to 30 minutes and the trip between Shenzhen and Maoming will be cut to three hours.
Once the Shenzhen-Jiangmen rail is operational, passengers change to the Ganzhou-Shenzhen rail at Xili Station and to the Hangzhou-Shenzhen rail and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong rail at Shenzhen North Railway Station.
At Shenzhen Airport Station, the rail will offer transfers to a second high-speed rail between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which is currently under planning, and at Zhongshan Station, it will be connected with Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Rail.