Academician Shi Zhongheng, an expert in urban rail transit, has passed away

Comrade Shi Zhongheng, a member of the CPC, an academician of the CAE Member, one of the important founders and pioneers of China's urban rail transit cause, and the former chief engineer of Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development Group, died in Beijing on December 23, 2024 at the age of 95 after failing to cure his illness

Shi Zhongheng was born in November 1930 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1950, he was admitted to Tangshan Railway Institute. In 1953, he went to North Korea to participate in the Korean War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In November of the same year, he graduated and stayed at the school to teach. He joined the CPC in August 1954. In 1955, he was selected to study subway in the Soviet Union and obtained an associate doctor's degree. In 1959, he returned to China and taught at Tangshan Railway Institute. In 1965, he was transferred to the scientific research institute of Beijing Metro Engineering Bureau as the director, and in 1983, he served as the chief engineer of Beijing Urban Construction Design and Research Institute. In 1999, he was elected as an academician of the CAE Member

Shi Zhongheng has been fighting for China's urban rail transit industry for more than 70 years, creating a theoretical system for shallow buried subway protection, leading the research and development of China's first shield tunneling machine equipment, compiling China's first subway design specifications and monographs, and proposing policy recommendations such as "subway planning and construction approval" and "reducing subway costs"; Promoted the localization and autonomy of key equipment such as signals and vehicles, presided over the technical demonstration of nearly a hundred major subway projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing and other places, cultivated a group of subway professionals, and made outstanding contributions to China's urban rail transit industry