Steel reinforcement cage tying
 

Qi Yongli Youth Commando Team, Second Division of the Hohhot Second Ring Road Northwest Line Expressway Project, China Railway 16th Bureau


 

Qi Yongli (center), Manager of the Second Division of the Hohhot Second Ring Road Northwest Line Expressway Project, China Railway 16th Bureau; Sun Chengju (second from left), Secretary of the Party Working Committee; Yu Haibin (second from right), Chief Engineer; and technical personnel at the construction site
 

　　Xinhua Net Tianjin Channel, September 22 — Just as the sweltering heat of summer was fading, approaching the construction site of the Northwest Line of the Hohhot Second Ring Road Expressway, the Yanzhan West Bridge, Bayannur Bridge, Guihua Road Bridge, Wulisha River Bridge, and the Huzhe Large Interchange had all begun to take shape. Rows of neat and handsome arch-style bridge piers stood proudly, and the erected box girders and bridge deck reinforcement components bloomed like beautiful flowers against Inner Mongolia's unique blue sky and white clouds. This is the project site of the Second Company of China Railway 16th Bureau Group.
 

　　Everyone who has been here gives a thumbs-up and says: “A miracle, truly a miracle!”

　　Outstanding achievements that leave people in admiration

　　One reason it is praised as a miracle is the sheer volume of work they have undertaken and the many difficulties they have overcome: the construction tasks undertaken by the Second Company span both the West Line and North Line sections, with a total length of 8.8 kilometers, including 8.8 kilometers of auxiliary road subgrade, 5 overpass interchanges, 9 pedestrian bridges, and the prefabrication and erection of 448 25-meter-long box girders, 56 26-meter-long box girders, and 504 30-meter-long box girders. With such a massive workload, in just over four months they have completed 80% of the total project volume — an astonishing pace that is hard to imagine. The Second Company, which rushed onto the site only after winning the bid on March 8, faced numerous difficulties: congested traffic, heavy traffic volume on the line, the dual safety risks of deep foundation pits and high-altitude operations inherent in bridge construction, considerable difficulty in land acquisition, demolition, and relocation, high owner requirements, and an extremely tight schedule. For the people of the Second Company entering the Hohhot construction market for the first time, this was undoubtedly a severe test.

 

　　A second reason it is praised as a miracle is that they took first place at every step: on March 24, they completed the first pile pouring on the entire line; on April 29, the first box girder on the entire line was successfully prefabricated; on April 29, they won first place overall in the first major evaluation by the bureau headquarters; on June 23, the Hohhot Construction Committee held an on-site exchange meeting on safe and civilized construction at the Huzhe Bridge site in the Second Company's area, announcing that the Second Company project department's section would be established as a benchmark project and organizing more than 100 leaders from 11 construction units along the entire line to visit and learn on site; on June 28, the first box girder on the entire line was successfully erected at the Bayannur Bridge 18 days ahead of schedule; at the peak of construction, monthly output value exceeded 100 million yuan, second to none on the entire line; the project department's girder fabrication yard produced 18 finished girders in a single day, the highest daily record in Hohhot's girder fabrication history; on August 20, the project department's No. 2 girder yard was the first on the entire line to fully complete its girder fabrication task; the tenth first was achieving zero safety accidents; the eleventh first was entering bridge deck system construction in just over four months and completing 80% of the total project volume. On September 4, they ranked among the top in the group headquarters' 100-day intensive work comprehensive evaluation. This string of firsts is a miracle in Hohhot's urban construction projects over the past decade or more.