On September 14, China’s first large-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) for plateau and alpine railway construction, “Snow Pioneer”, was successfully launched with the ground remote control at the construction site of China Railway Tunnel Group’s plateau railway project. The TBM was designed and manufactured by China Railway Engineering Equipment Group under China Railway Hi-Tech Industry.

　　"Snow Pioneer" is the largest-diameter homemade TBM, with a total length of 245 meters, a weight of around 2,500 tons, and an excavation diameter of 10.33 meters. It can tunnel to a height equivalent to four-story building in the complex geological conditions of plateau. The abovementioned plateau railway tunnel is 37.9 kilometers long, in which 20.675 kilometers for the entrance section is undertaken by China Railway Tunnel Group. “Snow Pioneer” will dig more than 18 kilometers in the right line of the tunnel.