The No. 8 maintenance access tunnel of the Yangtze River-to-Han Water Diversion Project has been completed

The No. 8 inspection and access tunnel of the Han RivertoBei River Diversion Project, a key project in the followup works of the SouthtoNorth Water Diversion Middle Route, was successfully breakthrough on June 10, marking new progress in the project’s construction. The tunnel is located in Baokang, Hubei, with a total length of 2,959 meters and a maximum burial depth of about 600 meters. The report noted that construction had to pass through complex geological conditions such as long downhill waterrich sections and fault fracture zones, with abundant groundwater and relatively high construction difficulty. To address these challenges, the contractor adopted a largediameter singleshield hard rock tunnel boring machine and combined it with advanced technologies such as advanced geological forecasting and digital twin to improve construction safety and efficiency. With the breakthrough of the No. 8 inspection and access tunnel, Bid 4 of the civil works for the Han RivertoBei River Diversion Project has entered the main tunnel construction stage. The project team said that the total tunneling distance of the main tunnel has now reached 27 kilometers, all nine hard rock tunnel boring machines along the line have been put into operation, and the project is advancing according to schedule. After completion, the annual average water diversion volume of the SouthtoNorth Water Diversion Middle Route is expected to increase from 9.5 billion cubic meters to 11.51 billion cubic meters, further enhancing the ability to ensure water supply.