Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Guangzhou-Macau railway Zhuhai section to start construction by year-end

*By Therese Tu

The Hezhou-Hengqin (Zhuhai) section of the Guangzhou-Zhuhai (Macau) High-Speed Railway, is set to begin construction by the end of this year, the Zhuhai government announced today (Wednesday).

The Guangzhou-Zhuhai (Macau) High-Speed Railway starts from Guangzhou North Station and ends at Hengqin, with a designed speed of 350 km/h (217 mph), while stations including Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Yuzhou, Nansha, Zhongshan, and Zhuhai Hezhou.

According to the press release, the establishment of this railway will “further expand exchanges between Macau and the Chinese mainland, while accelerating the construction of Guangdong-Macau In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin”.

The 21.5 km Hezhou-Hengqin(Zhuhai) section, with an investment of RMB12.6 billion (MOP15.9 billion/US$1.9 billion), is a major passage in China’s “Eight Horizontal & Eight Vertical” skeleton high-speed rail network.

The “eight vertical and eight horizontal” high-speed rail network, was outlined in the blueprint of a “mid-long-term railway network planning” jointly issued in 2016 by China’s national development and reform commission, the state’s ministry of transport, and China railway corporation.

The plan indicates that by 2025, the railway network scale in mainland China will reach 17,5000 km, while about 38,000 km of which are high-speed railways. 

Meanwhile, the Zhuhai government’s press release today declared that the Hezhou-Hengqin (Zhuhai) section will “meet surging travel demands and promote Macau’s long-term stability and prosperity”.

Earlier in March, the construction details of the Zhuhai railway section, including construction standards, geological conditions, transportation management, plan selection, investment control, and social influence, were evaluated at a feasibility review meeting held by the Evaluation Center of China Railway in Beijing.

The project designer, China Railway Siyuan Survey & Design Group, was required to make prompt revisions for the future construction, following the suggestions given by the state’s experts. 

The China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd. based in Wuhan city – one of the largest industrial center of China – , is a subsidiary engineering survey and design enterprise of China Railway Construction Corporation.