The first tunnel boring machine in our country rolled off the production line in Wuhan.

On August 1, Chinas first tunnel boring and blasting machine, Xianglong, rolled off the production line at the China Railway Science and Technology Groups manufacturing base in Jiangxia, Wuhan, Hubei Province. This equipment integrates two main construction methods: tunneling and blasting, filling a gap in the field of integrated construction equipment for complex geological tunnels. The Xianglong was jointly developed by Tsinghua University and China Railway Science and Technology Group, measuring 70 meters in length, with a tunneling diameter of 4.55 meters and a center cutter diameter of 1.2 meters, weighing approximately 400 tons. The equipment innovatively uses a hollow cutter head structure, relying on the coordinated operation of the hollow cutter head and the center cutter head, allowing for flexible switching between various operational modes such as front blasting followed by excavation, front excavation followed by blasting, and full-face tunneling, thereby merging the dual advantages of advanced drilling and blasting pre-treatment and mechanized continuous excavation.