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Xu Zheng, the highest official in Wuxi Metro Group, speaks to a reporter from China Central Television at a press conference held on Dec 14. The conference was arranged to announce that Wuxi's Metro Line 1 had won the National Quality Engineering Golden Award. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn] |
Wuxi's public transport system passed another milestone this week as the city's Metro Line 1 won China's highest honor for engineering construction, the National Quality Engineering Golden Award, on Dec 14, according to a press conference held on Wednesday.
It is the first project from the city in Jiangsu province to win the prestigious engineering honor, as well as the first domestic rail transit project to do so.
Wuxi Metro Line 1 is the most important and most expensive civil project to be undertaken in the city's history. Starting from Yanqiao Station in the north and ending at Changguangxi Station in the south, the 29.42-kilometer line cuts through the downtown area, stopping at 24 stations in total. Construction on the line took five years to complete.
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A Wuxi metro train is parked in the workshop. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn] |
As the city's first rail transit project, Metro Line 1 has also led to various critical technical innovations, including the perfect assembling of 23,000 duct pieces, the development of highly efficient track laying technology, sensor control technology and the application of cutting-edge machinery.
The National Quality Engineering Golden Award represents the highest honor in the engineering field. Founded in 1981, it has China's highest quality requirements for engineering projects. To date, only 108 projects have won the prize.
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Wuxi residents travel on Metro Line 1 on Dec 14. [Photo/wxrb.com] |
According to a rail transit network plan approved by Wuxi government in 2006, the city will have five metro lines in the near future with a total length of 157.77 km. At the moment, Metro Line 3 is under construction and the south extension project of Metro Line 1 is also underway. The beginning of 2017 will see construction begin on Metro Line 4.
