According to comprehensive reports, the award ceremony for the 2025 Tunnel Engineering Awards selected by New Civil Engineer (NCE), the flagship journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), was recently held in London. The “CREC Bauhinia” U-shaped Tunnel Boring Machine, a green prefabricated utility tunnel construction system led by China Railway International Group and developed by China Railway Engineering Equipment Group under China Railway Hi-Tech Industry, won the “2025 Tunnel Design and Construction Innovation Award” for its innovative application of the “U-shaped Tunnel Boring Machine construction technology” in the Yuen Long South Project in Hong Kong.
The geological conditions in the construction area of the Yuen Long South Project in Hong Kong mainly consist of sandy silty clay, with abundant groundwater and relatively high silt content in certain sections. In response to challenges such as the high risk and large land occupation associated with traditional open-cut construction methods, China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, drawing on its successful experience with U-shaped shields in underground utility tunnels, integrated shield tunneling with pipe jacking. This led to the first-ever application of the “U-shaped Tunnel Boring Machine” construction method in the Hong Kong SAR and the development of the green prefabricated utility tunnel construction equipment—the “CREC Bauhinia” U-shaped Tunnel Boring Machine—enabling efficient, integrated operations covering transportation, excavation, support, tunneling, installation, and side-joint filling of utility tunnels.
Since its launch on March 12 this year, the “CREC Bauhinia” has broken the long-standing constraint that open-channel works cannot be carried out during Hong Kong’s rainy season, setting a construction record of advancing 8 meters per day at a single working face and assembling 120 meters of box culvert per month.
