China Railway Construction Corp engineers extend Moscow subway

Having completed drilling a 4.6-kilometer tunnel for three subway stations of Moscow's Large Circle line on Wednesday, engineers with China Railway Construction Corporation, or CRCC, are now set to construct the stations and some nearby facilities.

The tunnel project is the first in which a Chinese company has been involved in building a local metro system using Chinese equipment and technology.

Now scheduled to be completed in 2023, the Large Circle line will include 31 stations with a total railway length of 12.5 kilometers. "We will remain working in the project after the tunnels are drilled through," said Xue Liqiang, general manager of CRCC Moscow metro project.

The CRCC began drilling the 4.6-km stretch of tunnel in August 2017 on the Large Circle line in Moscow, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020, and the first tunnel was completed in early April.

When construction started in 2010 as an extension of the Moscow Metro system, the Large Circle line was supposed to be completed by 2021. However, the completion date had been postponed until the end of 2023.

"Our technologies can be applied to a wide range of strata and are competent for both station construction and tunneling work," Xue said.

"As for management, Chinese management is more compact, working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our equipment has superior performance. It can be adapted to all sorts of working conditions, is easy to operate and has good follow-up supporting services," Xue said.

The CRCC employs more than 100 engineering and management staff and over 700 workers on the project. About half of them are Russians.

The Chinese underground construction team has impressed the Russian partner again by their speed and the high quality of their work.

"I have worked with different kinds of tunnel boring machines. China's machines have good overall performance. Their functions have been improved and defects corrected," said Yuri Zakharov, head of the construction zone for the CRCC project.

The CRCC designed and produced five tunneling shields capable of withstanding the city's harsh winters and complicated geological conditions.

Zakharov noted China's tunnel boring machines can handle any excavation lines and climate conditions.

"Our Chinese partners have made full preparation for the project at the very beginning," he said.

Chinese and Russian personnel used to have many different opinions and even argued for over a month as the two countries have different technological standards and approaches, said Konstantin Orlov, chief mechanic on the project.