http://j.people.com.cn/n3/2022/0620/c95952-10112008.html
Beijing Fengtai Station, the largest railroad terminal in Asia and an important railroad portal terminal in the Chinese capital, was officially opened for business on March 20. The Beijing Fengtai Station is the largest railway terminal in Asia and an important railway portal terminal in the Chinese capital.
Beijing Fengtai Station covers an area of 400,000 square meters, with 17 platforms and 32 tracks. The station can accommodate up to 14,000 passengers per hour and has 32 arrival and departure tracks. The station is Asia’s largest railroad terminal and China’s first large, modernized, two-tiered station with both conventional and high-speed lines.
What innovations have been made in the design and construction of this largest railroad terminal in Asia?
■High-speed rail on the top floor and conventional rail on the ground
The most distinctive feature of the design of Beijing Fengtai Station is the adoption of a multi-level transportation model: high-speed rail on the top floor, conventional rail above ground, and subway below ground. Mr. Ma Hui, Chief Engineer of Fengtai Station Project, China Railway Design Group Corporation, said, “This two-tiered design is a new type of station, which provides passengers with the convenience of seamless urban transit.
■Sun Tube Technology to Capture Natural Light Sources
The station interior makes full use of natural light sources, with a translucent strip on the ceiling brightening the entire station. Even in the waiting hall, natural light sources pour down from the numerous lights on the upper level platforms. This is another innovation in the design: sun tube technology. This is another innovation in the design: the dual-mode, electricity-free lighting system, a flat-plate lighting system.
According to Ma, the design team employed specially made “tubes” in the ground on the top floor to bring natural sunlight into the waiting hall. More than 200 tubes provide natural lighting for the 10-meter-high waiting hall. The overall energy savings from this technology will amount to more than 10%, saving approximately 950,000 kWh of electricity each year and reducing carbon emissions by more than 900 tons.
■Smart Construction Makes Stations Smart, Safe, and Efficient
When running high-speed trains on the top floors, the requirements for load-bearing beams are extremely high. The main structure of Zhongtetsu Construction Group Co. Mr. Xu Hui, Chief Engineer of the Group’s Beijing Fengtai Station Project Department, said, “Construction is adopting advanced information technology and smart equipment such as BIM, cloud computing, mobile internet, and IoT (Internet of Things) to make project construction smarter, safer, and more smarter, safer, and more efficient,” he said.
Beijing Fengtai Station has even more smart station brains. A monitoring system based on the Beidou Unified Space-Time Standard has been installed to continuously and sustainably monitor the natural environmental conditions and the condition of structures such as glass curtain walls and rust-prone and corrosion-prone steel members in real time. The system is deeply integrated with the station’s passenger transport management, passenger services, passenger transport facilities, and emergency command. This includes smart management services, data analysis and AI services, passenger transport management and station emergency command, and smart voice and video analysis. This enables smart operation and management of the station.
Fengtai Station was built in 1895 and was renovated and expanded in September 2018. After the expansion, Beijing Fengtai Station will be responsible for originating and terminating operations for multiple lines, including Jing Guang High Speed Rail, Jing Wei Railway, and Jing Jiu Conventional Railway, and will operate 120 passenger trains in its early years of operation. (Edited by YF)