On 8th, Nanjing section of Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway achieved run-through. Rail pavement is expected to commence in end of April. According to China Railway No.4 Engineering Group, the construction company of the project, the whole railway will complete rail pavement by the end of this year.

AS the last box beam of 32.5m long and 900ton weight was steadily placed on overhead pile base, 27.3km main line of Nanjing section of Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway achieved run-through. 

"Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway is a key national project, with a designed speed of 350km/h. In order to make sure that trains run smoothly at high speed, the box beams are not only big in volume, heavy in weight and long in individual length, but also made with high-tech," a responsible person of the No.4 Engineering Group says, "900 ton prefabricated box beams are unprecedented in the history of China's railway construction. Nanjing Pukou Beam Manufacturing Factory, jointly founded by local enterprises and China Railway No.4 Bridge Construction Group is the first beam manufacturing factory along the whole Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway Line. Nanjing takes a lead in tackling the difficulty."

It is understood that, 348km of Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway lies in our province and the 27.3km Nanjing Section is fully enclosed viaduct railroad. Only a few part of the line runs through roadbed such as Nanjing Station Building, Hanfushan Tunnel and the section between Shigan Super-big Bridge and Dadingfang Super-big Bridge.

As introduced by this responsible person, rail pavement for Nanjing Section will start in the end of April. It is expected that rail through for the whole line will be completed by the end of this year. Later, rail trial and trial-operation will be conducted.

After completion in 2011, this railway will enable us to go from Nanjing to Beijing within about 4 hours. South Nanjing Station will be 6 times bigger than the current Nanjing Railway Station. 80% of the passenger flow will be divided in the south station, making it a traffic hub of Nanjing instead of Zhongyangmen. (Nanjing Daily)