World's First Suspension High-Speed Railway Bridge Opens for Traffic

The Wufeng Mountain Yangtze River Bridge in East China's Jiangsu province, the world's first suspension bridge for high-speed trains, opened for traffic on Dec 11.

A key section of the Lianyungang-Zhenjiang railway, the 6,409-meter bridge has a 1,092-meter span and a suspension steel truss structure.

It has two layers. The upper one is an eight-lane highway with a designed speed of 100 kilometers per hour and the bottom is a four-lane railway on which trains can operate at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.

It is China's first highway-railway dual use suspension bridge.

China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), contractor of the project, adopted new structures, new materials and new equipment during construction. Innovative engineering techniques and technologies were developed for the project.

The project has set several records at national or international level in the fields of open caisson engineering and tower building.

The open caisson of the bridge's north anchorage, built by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company Ltd., is 100.7 meters long and 72.1 meters wide. Its area is the same as that of a standard football pitch, and is the largest of its kind in the world.

The anchorage is expected to weigh about 1.33 million tons, equaling that of 186 Eiffel Towers, also a world record.

In addition to the bridge, CCCC was responsible for construction of the Baoying integral hub and the Yangzhou East Railway Station, which is valued at about 5.52 billion yuan ($842.9 million).

The Lianyungang-Zhenjiang railway is about 304.5 kilometers long and has a designed speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Its construction started on Dec 26, 2014.

Upon completion, it will link north Jiangsu with Shanghai and Nanjing, contributing to regional development.

What's more, operation of the railway is expected to improve traffic condition in affected areas and increase their involvement in the core part of the Yangtze River Delta region.

A view of the Wufeng Mountain Yangtze River Bridge in Jiangsu province [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

A view of the construction site of the Wufeng Mountain Yangtze River Bridge in Jiangsu [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

A view of the Yangzhou East Railway Station of the Lianyungang-Zhenjiang railway [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)