On September 28, Shantou Bay Tunnel, a super-large diameter cross-sea shield tunnel designed by China Railway Liuyuan Group and constructed by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, was officially opened to traffic.

The picture shows the opening site of Shantou Bay Tunnel

Shantou Bay Tunnel is the first submarine super-large diameter shield tunnel located in an 8-degree seismic intensity area in China. It is also the first large-diameter shield submarine tunnel with super-large diameter shield crossing complex strata and the most significant comprehensive difficulty in China. It is called a "world-class challenging project". The tunnel is located between the Shantou Queshi Bridge and the Haiwai Bridge, connecting Longhu District in the north and Haojiang District in the south, with a total cost of 5.7 billion yuan. The total length of the line is 6.68 kilometers, of which the tunnel is 5.5 kilometers long and the outer diameter of the tunnel is 14.5 meters. It is a first-class highway with two-way six lanes and a design speed of 60 kilometers per hour.

During the construction process, China Railway Tunnel Group set up academician studios such as Zhou Fulin, Wang Fuming and Chen Xiangsheng, set up a field laboratory of the State Key Laboratory of Shield and Tunneling Technology, organized more than 50 seminars and invited experts in the field of industry to consult and discuss. It has successfully overcome world-class construction problems such as boulder group stratum tunneling, high viscosity soft soil stratum tunneling, long-distance shallow overburden high water pressure tunneling, high strength bedrock bulge in the sea, and silt stratum pressure warehousing.

The opening of the Bay Tunnel has solved the traffic problem of Shantou citizens crossing the sea in bad weather, and greatly shortened the travel time between the north and south sides of Shantou Bay from 40 minutes to less than 10 minutes.