A new efficient railway link is being built with the "Chang Zhu Tan Intercity Railway" large-scale project, which connects Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, with the other large cities of the agglomeration Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Yueyang, Changde, Yiyang, Loudi and Hengyang. With an overall length of almost 100 kilometers and 21 stations, it is designed to transport 60 million passengers a year. On the lot 1 and lot 2 construction sections, five Earth Pressure Balance Shields from Herrenknecht with a diameter of 9.3 meters are excavating a total  of 25 kilometers of tunnel. In September 2012, the first machine of the quintet started work. Between July 2015 and January 2016 the first three tunnel drives were completed successufully. EPB Shields No. 4 und 5 broke through into their target shafts in January and March 2017, respectively.