Hong Kong — Recently, the U-shaped shield tunneling project for the Yuen Long South Development in Hong Kong, undertaken by the Urban Rail Transit Company of The First Engineering Bureau of CREC, achieved full breakthrough along the entire alignment, marking the successful completion of a 1,000-meter excavation mission by the “CREC Bauhinia” UTBM, the first machine of its kind in Hong Kong independently developed by CREC.
The “CREC Bauhinia” UTBM was manufactured by China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, a subsidiary of China Railway Hi-Tech Industry. The machine measures 9.36 meters in width and 20.72 meters in height, featuring advanced performance and an optimized structural design. Upon completion of tunneling, the resulting box culvert section measures 6.15 meters wide and 6.35 meters high. As the first U-shaped shield tunneling machine deployed in Hong Kong, the “CREC Bauhinia” carries the important mission of bringing mainland China’s infrastructure technologies to Hong Kong and supporting urban development, serving as a vivid example of major engineering equipment contributing to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Located in the core area of Yuen Long South, the project faced highly complex geological conditions and numerous construction challenges. The subsurface strata mainly consisted of sandy silty clay, with abundant groundwater reserves and complicated seepage conditions. Certain sections contained thick sedimentary deposits with relatively low bearing capacity, creating significant risks such as ground settlement, water ingress, and excavation instability. At the same time, the project was surrounded by dense municipal road networks and residential communities. Traditional cut-and-cover construction methods would have involved higher safety risks, more complex excavation support requirements, larger construction footprints, greater traffic management pressure, and more disruption to nearby residents, making conventional methods unsuitable for the project’s safety, environmental, and efficiency objectives.
