Passengers take a subway train in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)
by Simon Eric Haywood
GUANGZHOU, March 31 (Xinhua) -- South of Guangzhou, work continues apace on the construction of several metro lines, seeing some of the city's deepest tunneling through technically challenging terrain, combatting a high water table and karst cave topography.
The capital of south China's Guangdong Province operates 478 km of subway lines, the third longest on the Chinese mainland following Shanghai and Beijing. Technological innovation is now leading a new round of expansion.
Ding Jianlong, board chairman of the Guangzhou Metro Group, said they will speed up construction on 13 new lines, bringing the city's total operating mileage up to more than 800 km by 2023.
Among them will be Line 18 and Line 22, the fastest metro lines on the Chinese mainland with a maximum designed speed of 160 km per hour, which requires innovative engineering to avoid sound and air pressure disturbance.
Operation of the two lines, involving investments of 43.6 billion yuan (6.4 billion U.S. dollars), is expected to aid the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Passengers walk through the exit of a subway station in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)
The metropolis of over 14 million people late last year realized metro access in all districts with the opening of Line 14, an overground track that spans the Huadu countryside on viaducts and is designed to withstand the heavy winds and rain that periodically afflict the region.
Such technological innovation is also observed in metro construction in other Chinese cities that wish to use metro construction to boost economic development and ease traffic gridlock.
Guiyang, the mountainous capital of Guizhou Province, in December 2018 officially put into operation its first subway line after overcoming terrain obstacles.
At present, China boasts 38 cities with operational metro systems, and that figure is projected to reach 50 by 2020 as more cities complete their urban rail projects.
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