Recently, on the second Jiaozhou Bay subsea tunnel construction site, the cutter of the 600-ton “Hai Tian” shield tunneling machine was put into the construction well and is about to conduct the tunneling work.

The 142-meter length Hai Tian will develop a 17.48-kilometer length and 15.63-meter diameter tunnel which will be the world’s longest undersea tunnel after completion.

After the structure members of the shield tunneling machine arrived at the site, the construction space was even more limited. As the key to assembling the machine, descending and installing the super huge cutter require high safety and stability. Thus, the construction side decided to apply two SANY crawler cranes to work cooperatively.

The 800-ton main crane SCC12000TM features a 42-meter main boom, a 17-meter lifting radius, and a 20-meter super lift radius. With the assistance of the auxiliary crane SCC4000A-2, the cutter and the body are securely assembled after 3 hours of operation.

Starting in 2020, the Jiaozhou Bay subsea tunnel project boasts the world’s largest construction scale under-sea tunnel project. Currently, three shield tunneling machines are already on the site. According to the schedule, the tunnel will be open to traffic in 2027.