Bomb shelter helps remove overhead cable eyesore
A major bomb shelter built half a century ago beneath Zhaojiabang Road in Xuhui has been renovated into a pipeline tunnel to contain overhead cables along the road.
A major bomb shelter built half a century ago in downtown Shanghai has never served its purpose until recently when it was renovated into a pipeline tunnel to help the city's massive campaign move overhead cables underground.
The 3.5-kilometer-long bomb shelter beneath Zhaojiabang Road in Xuhui District was built in the 1970s as one of the two largest underground shelters in the city. It was equipped with medical, military and life support facilities, but was later abandoned.
Its entrance that had been covered by a greenbelt on the road was discovered in 2018, and the Xuhui government decided to relocate the large amount of overhead cables along the road into the suitable underground container.
Shanghai aims to remove another 100 kilometers of overhead cables by the end of 2019 after 600 kilometers were removed last year, the city’s housing and urban-rural development bureau says.
"Without the shelter, we would have to dig out the road and at least two vehicle lanes on the artery would be closed," said Gu Weicheng, an official with the district's utility and water management center.
The renovation has been completed to contain all the overhead cables for power and communications along the road, Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute (Group) Co said over the weekend.
The company which designed and built the shelter in the 1970s was in charge of its renovation.
Vaulted steel beams have been installed to support the tunnel structure and the bricks were reinforced by concrete.
"Bones" and "muscles" have been added to the abandoned structure to ensure its safety, the company said.
The shelter between Tianping and Damuqiao roads is about 2 meters wide and tall with a vaulted ceiling. After decades of being abandoned, the bricks have started to crumble. Since no waterproof materials were used, it has been flooded by underground water and sewage.
Pumping machines worked two weeks to drain the water inside the shelter and engineers found the structure was still intact, Gu said.
Surveillance cameras are installed inside the former bomb shelter beneath Zhaojiabang Road in Xuhui to ensure safety of the pipeline tunnel.
The company built ventilation and equipment rooms in the shelter as well as multiple layers of shelves to place 18 electricity wires and over 30 optical cables. New entrances have been built for engineers and inspectors to enter.
To ensure the security, fire prevention sprayers have been installed along with an intelligent surveillance system, according to the company.
The shelter was built around 1970s along with numerous other bomb shelters honeycombed across the city under the admonition of Chairman Mao Zedong to "dig deep and store grain" and also as a defense against foreign invaders.
It was once renovated into a romantic underground cafe in the 1980s and became a sensation for a while, but was later shut down. The underground space was then abandoned.
Shanghai has a total of over 700,000 square meters of remaining abandoned bomb shelters. Local government is filling up some of them, while the better preserved shelters are being converted into activity centers, cafes and wine cellars.
Some shelters are being converted into a multitude of different uses, ranging from activity rooms, exhibition halls, storage rooms and even wine cellars.
A bomb shelter at 883 Xietu Road in Huangpu wouldn't be such a bad place to run for cover if disaster struck — because it now houses about 30,000 bottles of red wine.
Today it is home to a membership wine club called Cellar Club. Opened in 2010, it covers 2,050 square meters and lies 5 meters beneath the ground.
A shelter in Huangpu's Bansongyuan Subdistrict has been renovated into an activity center for its residents.
Not far away, an underground civil defense shelter beneath Dongjiadu No. 2 Elementary School is being turned into a storage area for the school and an exhibition center for students to study history.
Two shelters in the Xiaodongmen Subdistrict have become lounges for patrolling police officers.
In outskirt Fengxian, a bomb shelter in Nanqiao Town is being converted into an amusement center. The shelter was once a popular venue for simple events like air rifle shooting and billiards.
