China has developed the world’s first boring-and-blasting machine, a new class of equipment designed to meet the challenges of tunnelling through complex geologies, as the country pushes forward with its infrastructure expansion.Co-developed by Tsinghua University and a unit of state-owned China Railway Group, the “Xianglong” – with a diameter of 4.5 metres – rolled off the line in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province.The hybrid machine is smaller than conventional tunnel boring equipment but has the ability to integrate excavation with built-in drilling and blasting that boosts hard-rock digging efficiency by 30 per cent, according to a statement issued by…