Chongqing’s Hongyancun Station Wins Gold at ITA Tunnelling Awards 2025

Chongqing—The Hongyancun Station of Chongqing Rail Transit Line 9 has been honored with the Gold Award in the Project of the Year (Up to €100 million) category at the ITA Tunnelling Awards 2025, which celebrate excellence in underground solutions.

As the highest authority in tunneling and underground space, ITA's Tunnel Awards have become the industry's highest honor, often referred to as the "Oscars" of the tunneling world. Winning this award positions Hongyancun Station among global benchmarks in tunneling engineering and signifies comprehensive recognition by international industry authorities. This recognition will have a profound impact on the advancement of technology and the establishment of industry standards.

Hongyancun Station, located at the intersection of Yuzhong and Shapingba districts in Chongqing, is known for its extraordinary engineering feats, including being the deepest metro station in China. Visitors can enjoy Hongyan-themed murals, experience one of the city's coolest metro entrances, and even participate in the "Vertical Marathon" at the station.

Record-breaking elevation difference between entrances

The station's two main entrances are located at different elevations, with Exit 2 at the foot of the mountain and Exit 4 at the top, creating a vertical difference of 141 meters, equivalent to 48 stories. This marks the largest vertical height difference for metro station entrances in China. 

The station features up to 10 escalators for passengers traveling between the entrances, with the longest route involving 10 escalators between Exit 2 and Exit 4.

Hongyancun Station also overcame traditional construction challenges by integrating construction passageways with the design of Exit 2, saving over 20 million RMB (about $2.8 million) and reducing construction time by almost a year.

China's first high-speed elevator system

The station is also home to the first high-speed vertical elevator system in China's rail transit.

This system consists of four high-speed elevators, each traveling at 2.5 meters per second. In just one minute, passengers can travel 99 meters to the ground from the station's hall.

This design resolves the challenge of accessing deeply buried underground stations. It significantly shortens the travel time from the mountaintop to the riverside, reducing what would have been a 30-minute journey to just 3 minutes.

Due to the mountainous terrain, the station's tunnel construction adopted innovative techniques. The team introduced the "Initial Support Expanded Arch Footstep Method," which was developed to address the complexities of large-section tunnels. By applying principles from arch bridge mechanics, the innovation reduces the need for temporary supports and facilitates more efficient construction, ensuring both safety and quality in this complex underground project.

China's first vertical marathon 

Hongyancun Station innovatively combines urban culture, fitness, and transportation with its Vertical Marathon. The station hosts China's first metro-based vertical marathon event, the Hongyan Metro Vertical Marathon, with a vertical height difference of 141 meters and 860 steps.

The event has become a major attraction, hosting over 10 large-scale activities and welcoming thousands of participants. Since the successful global challenge in September 2024, the event has demonstrated the viability of multifunctional urban metro spaces and provided an innovative model for utilizing underground urban space.

With its cutting-edge design, Hongyancun Station has revolutionized metro station architecture in China and gained international recognition, earning its place among the world's best tunnel engineering projects.