China’s first under-sea tunnel links up in Xiamen
- Source: Global Times
- [08:00 June 15 2009]
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By Zhao Qian
The first stage of the Xiang’an Tunnel in Xiamen, the first under-sea tunnel project on the Chinese mainland, broke through at 3:58 pm Saturday.
Workers inspect if the ceiling is safe after they blew open a hole to join two sections of tunnel. Photo: Huang Shaoyi
The complete project comprises of two three-lane tunnels and a service tunnel and has a total length of 8,695 meters, including a 6,050-meter section beneath the sea.
Construction began on September 9, 2005 and should be completed by the end of 2009. Once operational, the tunnel project will cut the travel time between Xiamen Island and Xiang’an District to 15 minutes. It currently takes 90 minutes to travel between the two places.
The tunnel cost 3.2 billion yuan ($468.26 million) and was designed by Chinese engineers.
“We had to dig through 12 deeply weathered areas when excavating the three tunnels,” Zeng Chao, deputy director of the project was quoted by Xinhua as saying Saturday.
“If sea water enters into the tunnels it will destroy the whole project,” Zeng said.
It is really a big challenge, he added.
“The tunnel will be important to promote the economic development of Xiamen and ease transportation between Xiamen and Taiwan,” Pan Shijian, vice mayor of Xiamen was quoted by China National Radio as saying Saturday.
Since the Xiamen Special Economic Zone was established in 1980, the city has focused on boosting international investment and growing its economy.
A total of 356 projects with foreign direct investment had been approved in the city by the end of 2008, with a contractual foreign investment of $1.896 billion and an actual foreign investment amount $2.042 billion, according to data from the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Statistics.
Xiamen also hosts the annual China International Fair for Investment and Trade in early September to attract foreign direct investment to the Chinese mainland.