With the continuous acceleration of urbanization and the increasing demand for transportation, underground engineering construction, especially tunnel projects, plays an increasingly important role in urban transportation construction. In South America, an eye-catching subway project—the Santiago Metro Line 7 in Chile—used a new type of tunnel boring machine for excavation in April of this year. This project, undertaken by China Railway Construction Group, has a total machine length of 110 meters, a excavation diameter of 10 meters, and a target excavation length of 6.6 kilometers. This marks the first subway project in South America where Chinese enterprises have adopted shield tunneling construction.
At the project initiation ceremony, Chilean President Sebastián Pi?era Echenique stated that the launch of this project is of great significance to Chile's transportation construction. China Railway Construction is responsible for Section 1 of the project, which is also the first subway project in South America where a Chinese company has adopted shield tunneling construction, promoting the entry of Chinese equipment into the South American subway market.
During the specific implementation of the project, the debut of China Railway Construction's "Matucana" shield tunneling machine attracted widespread attention. Shield tunneling machines are hailed as the "kings of engineering machinery," and "Matucana" was independently developed and produced by China Railway Construction, with a total machine length of 105 meters and an excavation diameter of 9.8 meters. The naming of this tunneling machine was presided over by Juan Carlos Mu?oz, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications of Chile, and symbolizes "Mother Earth," blessing underground construction.
The project manager introduced that the project faces a series of challenges, including complex geological environments and high requirements for turning capabilities. To address these challenges, China Railway Construction has independently developed a series of core key technologies and innovatively designed the cutterhead and turning mechanism to ensure safe and efficient long-distance excavation of the shield tunneling machine.
The Santiago Metro Line 7 in Chile, with a total length of 27 kilometers and 19 stations, connects seven districts in the capital city of Santiago and is a key project of the Chilean government in recent years. Section 1 of the Santiago Metro Line 7, undertaken by China Railway Construction, is the most important section of the entire line. After the project is completed, it will significantly reduce the commuting time for residents along the line, providing convenient travel services for over 1.36 million residents.
The launch of this project marks further development of Chinese enterprises in the subway field in South America and injects new vitality into underground transportation construction in Chile. With the introduction and application of this advanced technology, Chile's urban transportation network will usher in more convenient and efficient development.