Three of the 'Major National Equipment' Among the Winners! CRCHI Takes Home Pr
November 14,2026
Recently, the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) 2026 Tunnelling Awards, known as the 'Oscars' of the global tunnelling industry, were officially announced. The Beishan Laboratory spiral ramp project (the world's first extremely-hard-rock TBM spiral ramp for radioactive waste disposal) in which CRCHI participated won the 'Innovation of the Year' award, marking international authoritative recognition of CRCHI's extreme underground engineering equipment technology.
In addition, the Beijing East Sixth Ring Tunnel, which won the 'Major Project of the Year' award, used CRCHI's domestically first 16-meter-class super-large-diameter shield machine 'Jinghua'; the shaft project that won the 'Innovation of the Year' award deeply involved CRCHI's world-first 23-meter-class shaft boring machine 'Dream.'
Certificate and trophy
This year's ITA awards saw unprecedented fierce competition, with 81 projects from 27 countries submitted for contention, and only 24 projects and individuals finally recognized. This win confirms CRCHI's innovation capability in extremely complex and extreme-condition underground equipment, exporting the 'China solution' for underground engineering construction to the world.
The Beishan Laboratory spiral ramp project's geological conditions are a world-class challenge: the tunnel rock mass is extremely intact granodiorite, with quartz content of 25%-30%, average uniaxial compressive strength as high as 170 MPa and up to 260 MPa, making it the most intact and strongest rock tunnel among the world's ongoing projects. The construction route is a spatial spiral, accompanied throughout by a -10% large gradient, requiring continuous small-radius (250 m) horizontal turning-and-downhill boring and muck removal - a construction difficulty with no mature experience to follow internationally.
Spiral curve route
Facing the technical barriers, CRCHI joined with the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, China Railway 18th Bureau, Beijing University of Technology, Central South University and the Fourth Research and Design Engineering Corporation of CNNC to form a research team for collaborative tackling, independently developing the 'Beishan No.1' TBM, successively overcoming a series of key core technologies such as extremely-hard-rock cutterhead rock-breaking, short-main-machine structure adapted to small-radius turning, TBM intelligent driving, and active deviation correction of spatial-curve belt conveyors. The team also built a spiral-curve adverse-gradient muck-removal test rig to verify the feasibility of stable muck removal by continuous belt conveyors under complex spiral conditions.
'Beishan No.1'
Test rig for spiral-curve belt-conveyor muck removal
After on-site practice, 'Beishan No.1' successfully completed 7.1 km of boring, overcoming seven 255 m small-radius turning sections, and achieved tunnel breakthrough by the end of 2025. In the extremely-hard rock strata it set eye-catching construction records of 21.6 m daily and 342 m monthly advance, achieving for the first time single-belt reverse-gradient muck removal under multiple continuous spiral turns, landing TBM one-click intelligent boring, with stable equipment operation and axis control accuracy meeting engineering standards - proving through engineering results the advancement and reliability of the entire set of equipment and construction technology, and providing a brand-new solution for similar extreme-condition projects worldwide.
Spiral-curve turning construction (left) / hard rock at the excavation face (right)
Standing on the highest podium of the international tunnelling industry this time is high recognition from international peers of CRCHI's technological innovation strength. In the future, CRCHI will continue to deeply cultivate extreme-condition underground engineering equipment R&D, adhere to independent innovation, continuously output hard-core scientific and technological achievements, and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese strength to global underground space development.
Source : www.51cm.org
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