China to Build North-south Trans Western High Speed Railway

[cirr]

Datong-Xi'an HSR(Taiyuan-Xi'an section)officially open today

The travel time between Taiyuan and Xi'an has been cut to about 3 hours.

From xinhuanet.com

 

[Jlaw]

Amazing. It would be better if China could divert a certain portion of out-going tourists into domestic destinations. Improved infrastructure and more convenient and luxurious transportation will certainly facilitate such a trend. This may in the end help distribute the national wealth more evenly across the industrial/services and agriculture areas.

Well done, nation!

Well done indeed but we must not become complacent as our enemies are always looking for our weakness and ready to strike. We must balance economics and military, with more emphasis on military.

 

[cirr]

Well done indeed but we must not become complacent as our enemies are always looking for our weakness and ready to strike. We must balance economics and military, with more emphasis on military.

As far as infrastructure build-up is concerend, China is still at an early stage.

It will take China another 20 years to achieve infrastructure density that is on par with European countries such as Germany and France。

Long way to go。Way to go。

 

[Edison Chen]

As far as infrastructure build-up is concerend, China is still at an early stage.

It will take China another 20 years to achieve infrastructure density that is on par with European countries such as Germany and France。

Long way to go。Way to go。

EU is fallen, our goal is the US. We need at least 30 years to catch up with them, except the railway system.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

EU is fallen, our goal is the US. We need at least 30 years to catch up with them, except the railway system.

Err, have you ever used public transportation in Europe? We are miles ahead of the US in that regard. In fact, our infrastructure is miles ahead of anyone in the world with the execption of Japan.

 

[Edison Chen]

Err, have you ever used public transportation in Europe? We are miles ahead of the US in that regard. In fact, our infrastructure is miles ahead of anyone in the world with the execption of Japan.

EU is too heavy for Germany and France to carry. Other countries are doing pretty bad now.

I never used EU public transportation, but I used US public transportation. Of course the US public transportation sucks, because they all drive, they don't need it. In some cities, only buggars ride the metro. The railway is as expensive as hell. Very limited metro, railway and bus routines, compare to China and maybe Germany. I worked in US for 3 years, but I never ride a bus, only one time metro for tour, most of the time I drive, because the gas is cheap.

 

[GCTom]

EU is fallen, our goal is the US. We need at least 30 years to catch up with them, except the railway system.

China's goal is neither to catch up to EU or US, but to catch up to itself through all the lost times during the last few century. Now that China as a country have stabilized and have good economic growth it should continue to build infrastructures that will improve that and the lives of its people.

 

[cirr]

SEPTEMBER 02, 2014

China's high speed rail dominance is built upon Tunneling expertise and dominance in tunnel boring machines

For growing cities having tunnels is no longer considered a luxury – they are a necessityas land is a precious commodity. Going underground frees up surface land for other development, and in fact, having metro stations nearby increases the value of land, which could be recouped (if necessary) from higher property assessments and quit rents.

For example, a city the size of Shanghai has 12 metro lines, and the city won’t be stopping underground construction any time soon. Xian, the capital of the Shaanxi province, will have up to six metro lines by 2020 (two are already in operation).

“At any given time, there are around 700 TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) running throughout China,” says Li in trying to give us a sense of the “underground movements” that are taking place in that country. Even at the peak of tunnelling in Kuala Lumpur for the Klang Valley mass rapid transit (MRT) project, only eight TBMs ran simultaneously.

Tunnels for speed and efficiency

If the Chinese Government approves the proposed Bohai Strait tunnel, then China will hold the record for the longest undersea tunnel at 122km – 2.5 times longer than the Channel Tunnel.

The proposed Bohai tunnel will run between the northern city of Dalian and Yantai on the east coast, slicing off nearly 1,300km off the current overland route between the two cities.

Straighter high speed rail lines enable faster speeds. Straighter lines require more tunneling.

Tunneling also goes together with bridges. Bridges to go over obstacles. Tunnels to go under or through obstacles.


China’s expertise in tunnelling is being brought to bear in Malaysia. This image is of a Chinese tunnel-boring machine excavating the second longest portion of the 9.5km-long MRT tunnels in Kuala Lumpur.

Shield tunnel boring machine are a kind of specialized engineering machinery for tunneling. Currently it is widely used in the construction of subway, railway, road and hydropower projects. With the trend of three-dimensional cities and pipelines buried underground, output of China's shield tunnel boring machines reached to 141 units in 2012, with sales revenue harvesting CNY 7.045 billion (US$1.1 billion).

Single shield TBM

A single shield machine uses pre-fitted segments to exert the blast force on the working face. Digging time represents approximately 80% of operating time, the remaining 20% corresponding to segment fitting.



Double shield TBM
Double shield machines allow for raster tunnel excavation as the segments are fitted in concurrent operation time during blasting (digging). In this case, digging time approaches 100% of operating time. The rear shield is fitted with grippers.

Machine progress is a 3-step process:

* Gripping of the rear shield onto the excavated surfaces,
* Digging by the cutter head (front shield advance), and laying of the lining,
* Rear shield advance (hence gripper advance) to the next digging position and back-up traction.



Gripper TBM

Grippers are shoes that press radially against the walls of the excavated tunnel.

Contrary to shelded hard rock TBM, this tunnel-boring machine therefore does not rest against the lining. The force exerted by the grippers must be very high to prevent the thrust applied to the head from causing shield recoil.



China's high speed rail dominance is built upon Tunneling expertise and dominance in tunnel boring machines

 

[TaiShang]

“At any given time, there are around 700 TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) running throughout China...”

Amazing, but not surprising. After all, it is just another day in China. Greatness is a regular state of affairs...

 

[cirr]

Amazing, but not surprising. After all, it is just another day in China. Greatness is a regular state of affairs...

A regular state of affairs indeed，only that a small portion of it is ever covered in English。

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I think most tunnel boring machine are fully automated

 

[cirr]

China to Build North-south Trans Western High Speed Railway

2015-01-06 20:01:45

CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Hai Peng

A CRH (China Railway high-speed) bullet train travels on the Guiguang (Guiyang-Guangzhou) high-speed rail line in Rongjiang county, Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou province, 26 December 2014. [Photo: Imagine China]

Chinese rail experts are holding meetings in China's western hub city of Xi'an to discuss the feasibility creating a new high-speed rail line linking Inner Mongolia in the north with Hainan in the south.

The line would cut through six provincial-level regions, including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong before ending on the island of Hainan.

The idea is to run the line through many of the regions in China home to this country's ethnic minorities, which are very popular tourist destinations.

Proposals will see the line make stops in the tourist cities if Yan'an, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Yulin and finally in Hainan, after crossing the Qiongzhou Strait between Guangdong and the island province.

However, caution for the plan is already being voiced, as the proposed line would run through a number of ecologicially-sensitive areas of China.

The cost of the proposed link hasn't been laid out.

But it's said to be under consideration for the Chinese government's next 5-year planning cycle, which is scheduled to begin next year.

China to Build North-south Trans Western High Speed Railway

 

[cirr]

Schematic Route

Design speed：350km/h

 

[ahojunk]

China's HSR network is growing fast.

Can't wait as this will make tourism in these places easier.

 

[cirr]

There is another partially-completed HSR further to the west：

Urumqi-Xining-Lanzhou-Jiuzhaigou-Chengdu-Panzhihua-Xichang-Kunming-ASEAN