New Metro station building technique a first in China

The construction of an arched roof at Metro Line 15’s Wuzhong Road Station was completed on Wednesday, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said.

Unlike building an underground Metro station from scratch, the arched pieces of the roof — each weighing almost 18 tons — were prefabricated elsewhere and hoisted up at the site by a huge crane.

This is the first time such prefabrication techniques have been used in the Metro system in China. According to Shanghai Metro, an arched roof structure will allow for a column-free station hall at Wuzhong Road, which not only gives the passengers a wider field of view in the station but also saves about 50 percent of construction time.

Line 15 will stretch over more than 42.3 kilometers, with 30 stations. Its route runs through Baoshan, Putuo, Changning, Xuhui and Minhang districts.

It is estimated that trial operation will begin by the end of 2020, by which time it will become “the western corridor of the city’s Metro system,” Shanghai Metro said. “Line 15 will efficiently improve north-south traffic in the western area.”

Ti Gong