CCTV News (Xinwen Lianbo): On November 28, 2023, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link (SZL), a major transportation infrastructure project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in which Far East participated, achieved mainline breakthrough, marking a historic milestone. Spanning 24 kilometers, the project connects Shenzhen, Zhongshan, and Guangzhou, and is currently the most comprehensive and technically challenging sea-crossing cluster project in the world.

Mainline breakthrough of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link — Far East's participation: The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link is a sea-crossing passage connecting Shenzhen and Zhongshan, integrating bridges, artificial islands, tunnels, and underwater interchanges into a complex sea-crossing cluster project. The project adopts an "eastern tunnel, western bridge" design. The route starts at the Shenzhen Airport Interchange, connecting with the second phase of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Yanjiang Expressway, crosses the Pearl River Estuary westward, lands on Ma'an Island in Zhongshan, links up with the under-construction Zhongshan-Kaiyang Expressway, and connects to Shenzhen, Zhongshan, and Guangzhou through connecting lines. During construction, the project has set multiple world records, including the world's first ultra-long, double-eight-lane underwater immersed tube tunnel.

Far East provided high-quality, safe, and reliable low-smoke zero-halogen flame-retardant fire-resistant cables, aluminum alloy cables, and other low-voltage power and control cables for the construction and completion of the project. These products were applied across the entire western bridge, central island, and eastern tunnel sections of the SZL. Relying on its strong R&D capabilities and technical expertise, Far East adhered to the quality standards of "zero defects, zero complaints, zero rework," providing solid support for the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link.

Western Bridge, Central Island, Eastern Tunnel

Building a "Sky Road" Over the Bay – Largest Span

The Lingdingyang Bridge has a span configuration of (580 + 1666 + 580) meters. Its three-span fully floating suspension bridge is currently the world’s longest-span sea-crossing steel box girder suspension bridge.

Creating a "Kunpeng" at the Pearl River Estuary – Largest Artificial Island

The SZL’s western artificial island is 625 meters long, up to 456 meters wide, with a total area of 137,000 square meters—equivalent to 19 international standard football fields. It is the world’s largest artificial island formed by steel cylinder enclosures. Serving as a critical hub and pioneering project for the bridge-to-tunnel transition, it is hailed as the "Kunpeng of the sea" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Forging a "Hidden Dragon" Beneath Lingding Sea – Longest and Widest

The SZL’s immersed tube tunnel is approximately 5,035 meters long, consisting of 32 immersed tubes and one final joint. It is currently the world’s longest, widest, and most technically challenging steel-concrete composite immersed tube tunnel.

As a major transportation artery connecting the eastern and western urban agglomerations of the Pearl River Estuary, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link will join the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Nansha Bridge, Humen Bridge, and others to form a network of sea- and river-crossing passages in the Greater Bay Area. Scheduled to be ready for traffic by June 2024, it will reduce travel time from Zhongshan to Shenzhen from about two hours to under 30 minutes.

Far East Cables Protect the "Central Nervous System" of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link

To ensure tunnel traffic safety, the SZL developed a smart traffic management and control system. Various sensors installed inside the tunnel can actively and quickly detect incidents. In case of fire, high-pressure water mist and foam fire suppression systems on the tunnel ceiling can be remotely activated with a single click from the control room, buying more time for evacuation.

The "nerve network" transmitting this information is located within the central utility corridor of the tunnel. The corridor is divided into three levels: the bottom level houses the entire route’s power cables, optical cables, water supply and drainage, and fire protection pipelines—essentially the "central nervous system" for the safe operation of the SZL. The middle level serves as cross-passageways, and the top level is the smoke exhaust channel. In the event of traffic accidents or fires, people can escape to the opposite lane via the cross-passageways. The cable products supplied by Far East not only possess fundamental characteristics such as zero-halogen, low-smoke, flame-retardant, and long service life, but also feature the following:

Conductor materials: High-purity oxygen-free copper with a copper content of 99.95% or higher is used for the conductor core, ensuring excellent conductivity. Fire-resistant cables are equipped with mica tape layers, and their fire resistance fully complies with the latest national standard GB/T19666-2019, guaranteeing continued power transmission for a certain duration during accidental fires, facilitating alarm activation and rescue operations.

Insulation materials: Silane-crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) with excellent insulation and heat resistance is used, providing superior electrical safety performance. The cable outer sheath uses high-performance low-smoke zero-halogen polyolefin material. When burned, the gases released from the insulation and sheath materials meet the requirements of GB/T17650.2, with pH ≥ 4.3, conductivity ≤ 10 μs/mm, and light transmittance satisfying the smoke density test requirements specified in GB/T17651.

Flame retardancy: Flame-retardant performance meets the requirements set by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), effectively preventing fire spread along the cables during accidental fires. The combustion performance of Class B1 cables meets the requirements of GB 31247-2014 "Classification of Combustion Performance for Cables and Optical Cables."

Far East’s Ultimate Service Empowers National Mega-Projects – Service, Quality, Reputation

Delivering ultimate products and services to continuously earn market trust and customer loyalty is both a responsibility and respect to customers—and precisely the foundation for high-quality enterprise development. Jiang Xipei, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Party Secretary of Far East Holding Group, stated: "Though the road may be long, perseverance will reach the destination. Though the task may be difficult, dedication will achieve success." Project leader Jiang Jun expressed great pride and honor in participating in such a world-class mega-engineering project. Li Lin, Supervisor of the Cable Industry, Chief Customer Officer, and Engineer of Far East, and Xiao Zheng, Senior Partner and Customer Officer of Far East Co., Ltd., led their team on six trips to Guangdong to support project completion, providing ultimate service from bidding to product delivery. "Far East deserves it!"

Far East Cables have frequently appeared in major international events and national key projects such as China Zun, the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, steadily advancing toward its goal of "becoming a global leader in the cable manufacturing industry."