On September 26, 2022, the large-diameter hard rock roadheader "Plateau Pioneer" (China Railway No. 1197) jointly developed by China Railway Equipment and China Railway 14th Bureau was successfully rolled off the assembly line in Zhengzhou. Another large-diameter hard rock boring machine used in the plateau alpine railway project after the "Loyalty" and "Plateau Pilot".

The "Plateau Pioneer" hard rock boring machine, with a cutterhead diameter of 10.23 meters and a length of about 300 meters, is used in plateau alpine railway tunnels. The tunnel is 3,900 meters above sea level, and the TBM excavation length is 14,400 meters. It mainly passes through granite, granodiorite, metamorphic sandstone and slate. The maximum saturated compressive strength of the rock is 269MPa.

In order to better solve the construction difficulties of the project, such as long excavation distance, high construction height, high rock stratum strength, and crossing the broken zone, China Railway Equipment and China Railway 14th Bureau jointly tackled key problems and added TBM-SMART intelligent auxiliary excavation and host vibration monitoring to the equipment. , cutter head infrared monitoring, advanced geological forecasting and other advanced technologies, escort the safe and efficient construction of the tunnel.Editor/Ma Xue