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SZ Metro: Digging for a golden future
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Li Dan
ANYONE riding along Shennan Thoroughfare these days will have noticed white walls with green trim, behind which construction workers labour. The walls also sport symbols which tell the world what the workers are building: the brand-new Shenzhen Metro.
The first phase, under construction now, entails building 19.5 kilometres of subway, including the eastern part of Line One and the southern part of Line Four. The tube will run from the eastern part of the city, across the city's busiest artery Shennan Thoroughfare and towards the western and southern areas. It will have 17 stations, including one on ground level. The Exhibition Centre will be the interchange station for the two lines.
Overall investment for the first phase of construction is expected to reach 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.27b). The local government will bear 70 per cent of the cost, and the rest will be raised through loans from various banks.
Advanced design
The subway will link the bustling Luohu Checkpoint, the city's top passenger checkpoint to Hong Kong located near the city's train station and main bus station in Luohu District, with Huanggang Checkpoint in Futian District. Though this design makes building the system more difficult, according to chief designer Yan Ruliang, it satisfies the growing needs of passengers.
When completed, the Luohu subway station will be directly joined to the border checkpoint, so that transit passengers can board the subway by walking through a tunnel. This solution will greatly relieve the traffic chaos on the streets above.
Unlike the Guangzhou subway, which mainly relies on imported equipment, the Shenzhen subway system largely depends on equipment from domestic manufacturers purchased by local companies who won the project through public bidding. With 72 per cent of the equipment coming from domestic manufacturers, the metro system will boost local industries and promote their technological upgrading besides holding down costs.
Big subway cars will reduce noise and power consumption, and for the first time in a subway on the Chinese mainland, a 136-metre-long screen gate will separate the platforms from the rails so as to ensure passenger safety as well as save energy in air-conditioning. Also for the first time, a high-tech fire extinguishing system will be installed, using a clean, non-polluting gas to put out potential fires. Automatic systems, meanwhile, will ensure a safe distance between trains and reduce the possibility of collisions.
An Automatic Fare Checking (AFC) system, which uses non-contacting smart cards, can not only sell and check tickets automatically, but will automatically compile and report on ticket statistics. In the stations, passengers can freely use the automat and changemaker, or recharge their intelligent cards so as to avoid buying tickets each time. Stations will also include escalators, elevators and a special strip for the blind along the passageway for the elderly and disabled, and designers promise the washrooms will be clean and well-ventilated.
At the control centre, which is being built at Zhuzilin, the management staff will be able to monitor the running condition and exact location of each train, and react quickly in the event of fire, congestion or other emergencies. Furthermore, the timetable can be adjusted at the centre according to traffic flow. Though the first phase construction includes merely two lines, the control centre's capacity is designed with expansion in mind; eventually it will be able to monitor six lines when the whole project is completed.
Complicated construction
Since it is being dug in a seaside city, Shenzhen's subway faces complicated geologic hurdles to overcome; indeed, some experts consider it a subway “submerged in seawater”. To avoid the deep piles of highrise buildings along the main roads, especially from Luohu Checkpoint to the Grand Theatre, the tunnels gradually change from running beside one another to being one on top of the other so as to take up less space. The difficult task of realizing this design is made even more difficult by the heavy traffic above ground.
The tried and tested “cut and cover” method, in which large trenches are dug, track laid and then the tunnels covered up again, will be employed in Shenzhen wherever possible. Close cutting, which means digging the tunnel without breaking the surface, is far more expensive and time-consuming, and will only be used when absolutely necessary. An in-between method called covered cutting, whereby a trench is dug and covered with a temporary roadway while work proceeds, will also be used to keep traffic moving. Covered cutting will be employed in the construction of the Science Museum and Huaqiang Road sections along Shennan Thoroughfare.
By far the most advanced and complex, the construction method will employ a giant machine to dig out the tunnels deep underground. This method, which gained fame during the construction of the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France, uses a cylindrical machine to bore a round tunnel through the earth. This method will be employed at four sections of Line One and Line Four. According to insiders, the first shield machine will be put into use on the Shopping Park-Honey Lake stretch early this month.
The first phase of construction will dig out an amazing four million cubic metres of earth, nearly enough to fill half of Shenzhen Bay. Plans call for more than 1/6 of the earth to be set aside and used to cover up the subway once construction is finished. The rest will go to designated discharging places such as Nantou in Nanshan District and Dawang Village in Luohu District.
To keep the environment clean and traffic flowing, as much as 100 million yuan is being spent to build temporary pedestrian bridges and roads, discharge wastewater and dugout earth, and reduce construction noise. At the entrance of each building site, car washes are in place to ensure that trucks going out are clean. And after the earth transport is completed each morning before five o'clock, workers are sent out to wash the roads.
Whenever new subways are built, they encounter underground communication lines. Traditionally these are cut then reconnected once construction is complete, but a new method allows the underground cables in Shenzhen to be moved rather than severed. This will not only save time but keep communication moving. At the Honey Lake station, 48 underground lines as long as 96 metres have recently been successfully moved 40 metres away from the original site.
Subway implies new prospects
Debra Li
ACCORDING to professional estimates, the subway system upon completion will attract approximately 20 per cent of passengers who currently rely on buses. At the busy Luohu Checkpoint, over 30 per cent of transit passengers are expected to use the subway.
As the first phase programme runs all the way along Shennan Thoroughfare, the subway will no doubt ease traffic on that artery and reduce the frequency of traffic jams. A new light-rail system slated to start next year, together with the subway and current bus transportation system, will all be interconnected to keep people moving and help the city grow.
The subway system, with its fast speed and convenience, should also reduce demand for private cars and contribute to environmental protection. Indeed, subways are themselves environmentally friendly, thanks to their low level of power consumption and pollution.
It will also bring tangible business opportunities to areas near the stations, as passenger flow will provide willing markets. Metro chain stores that sell everything from newspapers to hamburgers have become commonplace in many countries. Advertisements decorating the walls of underground passages are also welcome among manufacturers and passengers. In Beijing, most cultural events like concerts and operas now find their publication in the subway passage. In big cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo, many commuters choose to buy homes near subway stations, resulting in a booming real estate market along the subway line.
“The metro provides the pulse of a metropolis,” a Guangzhou citizen commented. “It gives us a controllable measure of time.”
Timetable for the first phase of construction
March 2001, large-scale construction launched
June 2003, civil works completed
August 2003, first trains delivered
September 2003, rail construction completed
January 2004, cars enter trial use
February 2004, outfitting of stations completed, equipment installation and adjustment
June 2004, system adjustment and preparations for running
December 2004, first phase complete, trains begin running
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