The 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC2025), one of the most influential global AI events, opened with great fanfare in Shanghai on July 26. During an afternoon special session, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission unveiled the first batch of strategic high-value AI scenarios for central state-owned enterprises. CRCC's "Intelligent Construction Management for Large Shield Tunnels" emerged as the sole representative from the construction sector among 219 competing scenarios, showcasing how AI technology is driving revolutionary changes in large-scale tunnel boring operations.

CRCC has prioritized technological innovation and digital transformation in recent years, establishing the Large Shield Tunnel Intelligent Construction Laboratory under the National Digital Construction Technology Innovation Center. The laboratory focuses on developing comprehensive intelligent construction technologies covering all processes and scenarios of large shield tunnel projects. With 10 approved national-level research projects on intelligent construction, the company has embraced "minimal staffing and unmanned operations" principles, achieving significant breakthroughs in AI applications for large shield tunneling. These replicable and scalable innovations are set to shape the future of the industry.

The implementation leverages CRCC's AI computing center, which provides domestically developed computing power, hardware, and training platforms. Centered on a "perception-cognition-decision-execution" feedback loop, the system uses an intelligent construction management platform as its nerve center. By integrating AI with shield tunneling technology, it incorporates eight key modules: intelligent equipment selection assistance, smart construction planning, shield diagnostic intelligence, autonomous driving assistance, automated segment production, intelligent material transport, automated monitoring, and smart energy management. This creates a new intelligent construction paradigm featuring multi-source data integration, multi-process coordination, and multi-model reasoning.

The technology has been successfully deployed across more than 20 major national infrastructure projects, including the Ningbo-Zhoushan, Chengdu-Chongqing, and Shenzhen-Jiangmen railways. At the Jintang undersea tunnel on the Ningbo-Zhoushan railway, intelligent material transport systems achieved the first-ever unmanned horizontal and vertical transportation of large, irregularly shaped components like tunnel segments and box culverts, accelerating construction of the world's longest undersea high-speed rail tunnel.

The Shu'an tunnel on the Chengdu-Chongqing middle route saw intelligent driving assistance help China's longest 14-meter earth pressure balance shield achieve a record monthly advance of 400 meters through complex geological formations.

On the Shenzhen-Jiangmen railway's Section 7 Shenguan tunnel, intelligent shield diagnostics successfully guided the "Kunpeng" tunnel boring machine beneath the Dongbao River, pioneering long-distance underwater crossings with large-diameter earth pressure shields through water-permeable complex terrain.

Looking ahead, CRCC plans to systematically advance large shield tunnel intelligent construction technology through its complete lifecycle—from demonstration and deployment to industrial expansion and ecosystem development. This initiative aims to cultivate new drivers of productivity growth while maintaining leadership in intelligent tunnel construction.