China - April 17, 2025 Storyline: Smart tunnel boring machine in China redefines underground construction [Voice_over] One of China's smartest TBMs, or tunnel boring machines, has reached a 5,000-meter milestone recently. The Linghang is a slurry shield tunneling machine with a 15.4-meter diameter cutterhead, and digital twin technology. It's playing a major role in the excavation of an underwater high-speed train tunnel that passes under the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Taicang City in Jiangsu Province. An engineer from the project explained that tunnel boring is like working blindfolded because it's impossible to know the surrounding geological conditions with full certainty. To obtain more information for better decision making, the Linghang is equipped with sensors and geological forecasting systems. [Sound_bite] Fu Bowei, Deputy chief engineer, Chongming-Taicang tunnel project: "The geological conditions pose a major challenge to the construction. To address this, the shield machine is equipped with an advanced geological forecasting system capable of accurately detecting ground conditions 10 to 40 meters ahead of the cutterhead. Additionally, its intelligent sensing system provides real-time analysis of geological data, ensuring the smooth progress of tunnel excavation." [Voice_over] Once complete, the tunnel will become part of the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei high-speed railway. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]