Construction workers in a railway tunnel in Pingtan county, Fujian province have moved a little over 55 meters after weeks of work on the Su’ao Tunnel, a part of the 88-kilometer-long Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, with the tunnel design calling for a two-track line, 1,861 meters long, for August 2016 completion.

Shi Changkang, a project supervisor, remarked, “We’re constructing an inverted arch and, after we install the reinforcement rods we’ll proceed with the concrete pouring.”

To speed things up, Shi’s team have increased their manpower and brought in large excavation machines with the goal of moving 100 meters a month.

Workers at the Su’ao Railway Tunnel, Pingtan county, Fujian, on Jan 25. [Photo/ptnet.cn]

Background: Fuzhou-Pingtan Railway

Construction of the Fuzhou-Pingtan Railway – which will link the capital city of Fuzhou and the island county of Pingtan in Fujian province – began on Oct 31, 2013.

The line stretches 88.4 kilometers, with a designed speed of 160 km per hour (Fuzhou-Fuzhou South) and 200 km per hour (Fuzhou South to Pingtan), a passenger capacity of 50 million and cargo capacity of 15 million tons annually.

The railway project – with a total accrued investment of 26.8 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) – is expected to take over five years.