Congratulations on the opening of the northern section of Qingdao Metro Line 1 and the northern section of Line 8 for trial service

On the morning of December 24, the opening ceremony of the northern section project of Qingdao Metro Line 1, and the northern section of Line 8 with work points and system tasks, undertaken by the general contracting design of UCD, was held at Qingdao North Railway Station. Zhao Haozhi, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and acting mayor, declared the two lines were opened at the ceremony. It’s the first time that two metro lines were opened for service simultaneously in Shandong Province. Since then, Qingdao Metro Line Network included six lines in service, with the total length ranking among the top ten in China. The metro line network basically achieved full coverage over the major transportation hubs in the city, effectively serving Qingdao Liuting International Airport and Jiaodong International Airport in a new stage of network operation.

Qingdao Metro Line 1 undertaken by the general contracting design of UCD can be traced back to the 1980s and 1990s. The prototype of this line originated from the beginning when Qingdao planned to build metro, and UCD participated in the whole process, responsible for planning research. Along the long history, generations of urban designers at various ages have contributed countless wisdom and industrious work to it. Now the northern section project was successfully opened for trial service. It’s very gratified and proud for the general designer of this line.

Line 1 is about 60 kilometers long, with 41 stations. The line starts from Emeishanlu Station on the West Coast in the south and ends at Dongguozhuang Station in Chengyang District in the north. It is a cross-sea line, passing through the new district on the West Coast, Shinan District, and Shibei District, Licang District, and Chengyang District. It’s a north-south fast metro corridor connecting the urban districts on the West Coast, East Coast and North Coast, with transfer stations with several lines in the metro line network, and it’s a rare extraordinary long line in China. The north section is 21.9 kilometers long with 15 stations. It starts from Qingdao North Railway Station in the south and ends at Dongguozhuang Station, connecting many big transportation hubs including Qingdaobei Railway Station, North Long-distance Bus Station and Liuting International Airport. It can strengthen the connection of Chengyang District and Licang District with the main urban districts, effectively solve the transportation problems caused by working in south area and living in north area of the city, relieve the pressure on ground transportation, improve the traveling environment for citizens, and promote the land development and social and economic development in the areas along the line.

The northern section of Line 1 is called the “Geological Encyclopedia”. The geographic forms along the line are complex and diverse, with many types of rock and soil, and across many fault zones, with poor integrity and stability. Geological risks such as major bad geological conditions, complex hydro-geological conditions, crossing structures, crossing water-rich sand stratum and strata breaking zones, and uneven soft and hard stratum caused many problems in the construction. The “encyclopedia”-style geological conditions brought about unprecedented difficulties to the metro construction. In the process of the construction, various technologies such as mining method and tunnel shield were applied to build tunnel according to different geologic conditions. To solve the great difficulties of water-rich sand stratum geologic condition, the TRD construction method was applied for the first time in the construction of the northern section of Line 1. Based on the waterproof curtain project of the foundation pit at Fengganglu Station, the open-cut station design and construction method for the stratum with soft upper layers and hard lower layers in Qingdao was optimized. The freezing method was initiatively applied in soil reinforcement and achieved good results. All problems were solved depending on innovative construction methods, which ensured the project progress and achieved the opening for service as scheduled.