Xinjiang ABH Water Delivery Tunnel Project

Project: Xinjiang ABH Water Delivery Tunnel Project

Cooperation Unit: China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Group and China Railway 18th Bureau Group Co., Ltd.

Project introduction: The engineering tunnel is about 42km long, the excavation diameter is 6.53m, the designed water delivery flow is 70m3/s, and the tunnel slope is 2‰. The tunnel is mainly dominated by type II and III surrounding rocks, and the uniaxial compressive strength of the surrounding rock is mostly between 80 and 180 MPa. The tunnel passes through multiple fault zones, where faults and unconformity contact zone groundwater develops. In addition, the tunnel boring machine requires continuous tunneling of about 20 kilometers, which is currently the longest tunnel in China are along the tunnel, which is the most challenging tunnel for TBM construction at present.

Major difficulties: The engineering geological conditions are very complex. The average burial depth of the tunnel is more than 1100 meters, and the maximum burial depth is about 2700 meters, which is 2-5 times the burial depth of the general project. The ground stress is high and the lithology changes greatly. The project has to pass through granite, tuff and sandstone, and three major global construction problems need to be overcome, and they are high burial depth, high ground temperature, high ground stress, strong rock burst; long-distance single-head ventilation, reverse slope drainage; large faults, large surrounding rock deformation. The construction difficulty is rare at home and abroad.

Cooperation Mode: The first 2KM cooperated with China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co., Ltd in a contracted manner, and then cooperated with China Railway 18th Bureau Group Co., Ltd. 

Project highlights: In the process of cooperation with China Railway Construction, our company conducted tests with many TBM disc cutter brands such as Robbins, Jilin Giants, Tianjin Lilin, and CREG. From the rock hardness, cutter ring wear value, driving distance and other aspects of the test stage, Litian TBM cutters’ performance is superior to other manufacturers' cutters.