Bypass of the Shkotovo - Smolyaninovo section of the Far Eastern Railway
The Shkotovo – Smolyaninovo section is located on the electrified railway direction Ussuriysk – Nakhodka, located in the Primorsky Territory. This section of the railway line is one of the barrier areas; pushing locomotives were used to move freight trains, which reduced capacity.
To solve the problem, a project was developed to bypass the Shkotovo – Smolyaninovo section with the construction of an electrified double-track railway section 7.53 km long.
MMC International specialists built two single-track tunnels with a total length of 2870 meters, approaches to them with a length of 1500 meters, including two reinforced concrete bridges. In addition, a complex of engineering and technical security facilities was built at the port sites.
–Tunneling was carried out in difficult engineering and geological conditions. The mountain range along the tunneling route is represented by rocks, loam and clay with inclusions of layers and lenses of highly fractured water-saturated coal. During the excavation process, special methods of soil consolidation were used, including advanced fastening of the face with pipe screens. Drilling was carried out in three ledges, with counter faces from the East and West portals.
Despite the difficulties, construction was completed in a short time frame from 2021 to 2024, with high quality.
Mining work began in May 2022, and freight train traffic opened through the tunnels in December 2024.
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During construction, a colossal amount of work was carried out:
- The excavation of soil and rock amounted to 800 thousand m³, including 300 thousand m³ using a closed method during the construction of tunnels;
- 57.5 thousand m³ of concrete was laid;
- 6 thousand linear meters of rail track were installed, of which 2.9 thousand meters were ballastless, on small-sized reinforced concrete frames directly in the tunnels;
- Two reinforced concrete bridges were built according to the 2x13.5 layout, each 34.182 m long;
- More than 1,100 meters of noise barriers were installed.