Shanghai East Railway Station completes 9,000-ton steel roof lift

"This is the largest roof lift area for a railway station in China," said Li Hongnian, general manager of the construction management department at Shanghai Eastern Hub group. "Our team moved away from traditional step-by-step methods to use an integrated assembly and single-lift process."

The new approach combined multiple construction tasks at ground level before lifting, including steel structures and electrical systems. This method moved over 90 percent of high-altitude work to the ground level, enhancing workers' safety and construction quality.

The construction team deployed 729 sensors and 178 computer-controlled lifting cylinders to achieve precision, with automatic corrections triggered as height differences exceeded five millimeters.

"We equipped this lift with a 'central nervous system'," said Jia Baorong, deputy chief engineer at Shanghai Construction Group. "We developed a digital system where every stress point and lifting height of the steel roof appears in real-time on a virtual model."