Planning of Bohai Bay Cross-sea Passage has been submitted for approval

Sun Jun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the recently held International Bridge and Tunnel Technology Conference in 2019 that the internal research of the Bohai Bay cross-sea corridor has lasted for 27 years and is now at a key point. The research group has completed the strategic planning report of the corridor scheme and submitted it to the National Development and Reform Commission for approval, preliminarily estimating the project funds of 300 billion yuan. According to Sun Jun's analysis, if the Bohai Bay cross-sea corridor is built, the total length is about 125 kilometers. If the speed is 180 to 200 kilometers per hour, the journey will only take one hour.

At the International Bridge and Tunnel Technology Conference in 2019, Sun Jun delivered a speech entitled "Some Thoughts on the Construction of the Cross-Sea Corridor in the Bohai Bay".

He said that the research on the construction of cross-sea passage in Bohai Bay has lasted for 27 years. However, due to the doubts of some experts, the project can not be started. "Is it necessary to do it now? Are there any alternatives? Bridge or tunnel?" These are all problems.

It is reported that the cross-sea passageway of the Bohai Bay, namely the "smoke-spanning sea passage", is an important part of the "Tongsan Road" (Tongjiang City of Heilongjiang Province-Sanya City of Hainan Province) in China's coastal traffic development planning. The research on the cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait began in 1992. Its main idea is to use the favorable geographical conditions of the Bohai Strait to construct a direct and fast passage across the Bohai Sea from Penglai in Shandong Province to Lushun in Dalian via Changdao. The gap C-shaped traffic will be transformed into a four-way_-shaped traffic, thus forming a major artery of railway and highway traffic across the East and south of China. Sun Jun said that as early as the end of the 1980s, planning for the cross-sea passage in the Bohai Bay had begun. At present, the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Bridge has been open for many years, and the train passenger and cargo ferry in the Qiongzhou Strait has already been opened. Only the cross-sea passageway in the Bohai Bay has not yet been started.

The urgency of Bohai Bay cross-sea corridor is self-evident. Sun Jun believes that it mainly includes three aspects: first, satisfying the growth demand of traffic volume inside and outside Shanhaiguan Customs; second, increasing the convenience of traffic; third, bringing regional benefits after the completion of the corridor. Sun Jun believes that the demand for increasing traffic volume inside and outside Shanhaiguan is the decisive factor for the construction of cross-sea corridor in the Bohai Bay. At present, the railway transport capacity of the internal and external links can still meet the requirements. After the Beijing-Shenzhen high-speed railway was put into operation in 2018, it can actually provide 230 million passengers per year. But five to seven years later, with the construction of the urban agglomeration around the Bohai Bay and the development of its industry and the rise of Xiongan New Area, the annual total passenger transport demand will reach 300 million, and the railway transport capacity inside and outside the Guan will be "stretched to the limit". If there is no room for adding trains on the old lines (the capacity of Jinpu section is saturated at present), it is imperative to build cross-sea passages as soon as possible and in time. Transportation convenience is also one of the reasons for the construction of cross-sea corridors in Bohai Bay. Now it takes more than 10 hours to transfer from Shandong to Northeast China by high-speed railway through Tianjin, while it takes only 45 minutes to fly between Yantai and Dalian, but the traffic volume is too small.

According to Sun Jun's analysis, if the cross-sea passage in Bohai Bay is completed, its total length is about 125 km. According to the train speed of 180 to 200 km/h, the whole running distance only takes about one hour, which is much shorter than before. Sun Jun said that the role of the channel is not only to connect Yantai and Dalian, but also to connect and revitalize the whole northeast area. The channel can connect Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin to the north and Jinan, Yantai, Qingdao, Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Hefei, Nanjing and Suxi to the south. Chang, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other developed areas of the Yangtze River Delta radiate the whole eastern China. Sun Jun also put forward a detailed construction plan that he thought was appropriate: "Penglai-Changdao" line south section, because there are Changshan Islands for transition, and the water depth is shallow, bridges can be built; to the north of the main part of the sea area, due to the increase of water depth, and there are basically no small islands for transition, the feasible plan should be the first choice of submarine high-speed railway tunnel.

According to Sun Jun's preliminary estimate, the total construction cost of the cross-sea corridor in the Bohai Bay will reach 300 billion yuan, with a construction period of about 15 to 20 years. He appealed that after the approval of the strategic planning study report, we should actively carry out "pre-feasibility" and "work-feasibility" studies, and pay close attention to various detailed surveys of seabed topography, hydrology, engineering geology and seismic geology, as well as seabed hydrology. It is reported that the Bohai Sea is the largest inland sea in China. The shortest distance between Penglai in Shandong Province and Lushun in Liaoning Province is 56 nautical miles. At present, the main modes of transportation linking the two peninsulas are railway transportation around the Bohai Sea and Yanda waterway transportation. The cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait takes advantage of the favorable geographical conditions of the Bohai Strait to construct a direct and fast passage across the Bohai Sea by combining highway and railway. The railway transportation around Shanhaiguan has been shortened from more than 1500 kilometers to more than 100 kilometers of cross-sea passage, and the Yanda waterway transportation has been shortened from 6-8 hours to 1 hour.