The digging work for the right-line shield tunnel on the Xiancun village-Guangzhou East Railway Station section of Guangzhou's Metro Line 18 was recently completed.

The Xiancun village-Guangzhou East Railway Station section will be 2.4 kilometers in length, of which 1,989 meters will be a shielded tunnel.

The right-line shield tunnel is dug through. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

Many problems were met during the tunneling of the right-line shield. One of them was that the shield tunneling machine had to pass underneath Metro Line 1 and 3, with the minimum distance of 3.3 meters. The problem was compounded by the ground movements from the machine and existing trains, as well as the chance of subsidence in the existing tunnels.

Automatic monitoring technologies were applied during the construction, allowing timely feedback for abnormal situations in case emergency measures needed to be taken.

In addition, an improved device for waste water reuse in the tunnel was developed, along with an environmental protection system for the rapid treatment of waste soil and muddy water. An enclosed noise reduction shed was built into the project's air shaft to reduce the impact of construction noise on surrounding residents.