Highway-railway bridge in China’s Jiangxi boosts regional development

By Li Xinping, People’s Daily

In the first six months of this year, fixed-asset investment in China’s railway sector reached a record high. The investment has fully leveraged the advantages of the railway industry’s long supply chain, wide-ranging impact, and strong driving effects.

A railway project under construction today well explains the “multiplier effect” of this investment.

Standing on top of the 141-meter-high main tower G32 of the main bridge that spans the west tributary of the Ganjiang River, a part of the Yangzizhou Ganjiang Highway-Railway Bridge, one can overlook the sparkling Ganjiang River with cargo ships shuttling back and forth.

Factories, high-rise buildings, and vast fields in the distance are all within sight. Up close, construction workers on the bridge are busy, many of whom come from counties and townships nearby.

The Yangzizhou Ganjiang Highway-Railway Bridge is the controlling project of the entire route of the Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed railway, while the latter remains an important part of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway, connecting the north and south, and integrating the east and west.

Upon completion, the Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed railway, will be crucial for the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the social and economic development along the rail.

The driving force of the bridge has already become evident as the project commenced.

Let’s first look at the investment stimulation. The Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed railway, connecting Nanchang and Jiujiang in east China’s Jiangxi province, has drawn a total investment of 32.41 billion yuan ($4.51 billion). The investment in the main bridge that spans the west tributary of the Ganjiang River alone was nearly 1.08 billion yuan. Since the construction began, the purchases of local materials have added up to 13.99 million yuan, effectively driving procurement demand.

Xia Xiaoren, head of the Yangzizhou Ganjiang Highway-Railway Bridge with Nanchang-Jiujiang Intercity Railway Co. Ltd. said that apart from purchasing local materials such as stone, sand, steel bars, and cement, the company also leased machinery and vehicles from local providers. The project has created job opportunities for local people and cultivated a group of skilled personnel in project management, Xia added.

According to Xia, the construction of the Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed railway, has provided jobs to over 5,100 people, whose everyday needs have boosted the businesses of convenience stores and restaurants in local villages.

“The project has effectively increased the income of local residents and propelled economic development,” Xia noted.

Upon completion, the Yangzizhou Ganjiang Highway-Railway Bridge will set a number of world records: it will become a highway-railway hybrid bridge with the most road lanes and largest capacity in the world, the world’s largest-span highway-railway bridge, and the world’s first harp-shaped cable-stayed bridge designed for trains running at 350 km/h.

New records mean new challenges. To address the difficulties, new technologies are indispensable. “Before the construction began, we virtually simulated the entire building process, identified the engineering difficulties, improved design parameters, and streamlined the construction process,” said Zhong Lianggen, deputy head of the Yangzizhou Ganjiang Highway-Railway Bridge with Nanchang-Jiujiang Intercity Railway Co. Ltd. “The three-dimensional visualization of the simulation was equivalent to an online rehearsal.”

The construction site of the main tower G32 resembled a sophisticated intelligent factory, with 31 monitoring points in each cofferdam foundation pit. Real-time monitoring was carried out through different methods such as radar water level gauges, strain gauges, and video surveillance.

“Sensors provide real-time monitoring, and intelligent algorithms can automatically alert and correct any deviations, achieving precise construction,” said Zhong.

When the bridge is completed, its virtual version will also be delivered simultaneously for future maintenance. The virtual bridge contains all the information during construction processes, including design, material, plan, quality and examination, and will serve as the digital archive of the physical bridge.

The Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway, along which the Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed railway is located, is an important vertical line of China’s high-speed rail network that centers around eight main vertical lines linking the north and south and eight horizontal lines connecting the east and west. It connects major city clusters such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Pearl River Delta.

“The Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway will become another important route connecting the north and south of China. It will not only facilitate travel and transportation, but provide more capacity resources for railway freight transportation,” said Xia.