The milestone marks a major step in the city’s West-to-East Water Diversion initiative, which includes the construction of the water diversion tunnel, a water treatment plant, and a supply pipeline network.
The 10.78km tunnel was completed in 21 months and included a 240m drill-and-blast section and a 10.54km TBM section. The tunnel reaches a maximum depth of nearly 800m and a minimum of 29.4m, passing through high-strength welded tuff.
The 4.03m diameter TBM was equipped with 18in single disc cutters and 17in centre disc cutters, all supplied and maintained by Litian Heavy Industry.
As the TBM cutter contractor for the project, Litian helped mitigate challenges such as extremely hard rock layers and sudden water inflow.
The TBM achieved a record monthly advance of 719.21m and a maximum daily advance of 41.82m.
With the tunnel now completed, the construction of the water pipeline is set to accelerate, and the entire project is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Once operational, it will deliver 36 million m3 of water annually to Linhai’s urban area.
