On February 25, the logistics branch road, a supporting project of the reconstruction project of Bridge No. 151 on the Wuxi section of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, was completed and put into use, laying the foundation for the full-scale construction of the railway bridge reconstruction project.
Bridge No. 151 on the Wuxi section of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway spans the Xicheng Canal and is located near the Wuxi Tourism and Business Higher Vocational Technical School. According to the relevant person in charge of the Municipal Waterway Department, the navigable span of the bridge has a clear width of 30 meters and a clear height of 3.8 meters, allowing only ships of less than 300 tons to pass. However, in 2015, the average tonnage of ships on the Sunan Canal and Xicheng Canal both exceeded 500 tons, with large ships reaching 1,000 tons. In recent years, accidents involving passing ships scraping or colliding with the piers and crossbeams of Railway Bridge No. 151 have occurred frequently.
With the large-scale development of inland river ships and the upgrading and renovation of the main canal network in China, the safety hazards of Railway Bridge No. 151 have become increasingly prominent.
To promptly eliminate safety hazards, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation has listed the reconstruction project of Bridge No. 151 on the Wuxi section of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway as a key provincial transportation project and also included it in the key engineering construction plan of the Wuxi Municipal Government.
“Currently, we are in the preliminary preparation stage, involving the relocation and modification of pipelines and other work,” said the relevant person in charge of the Municipal Waterway Department. The logistics branch road delivered for use this time was built to support the construction of the railway track panel base. The track panel base is located in Huishan District, west of Qiangui Road and south of the existing Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. There was originally a 7-meter-wide road at this location used for the travel of personnel and vehicles from logistics and other enterprises in the area. To ensure smooth traffic in the area, the existing road was diverted before the construction of the track panel base.
The project manager of the Bridge No. 151 reconstruction project told reporters that, affected by factors such as Wuxi North Station, navigable clearance of the waterway, road clearance, and urban planning, a new railway line will be built 20 meters south of the original railway bridge. The new railway line starts from Wuxi North Station, bypasses southward along the right side of the existing line, and successively crosses Qiangui Road, the old Xicheng Canal, the reconstructed new Xicheng Canal, Jianghai West Road, Fengxiang Road, and Fengbin Road, and connects to the existing Beijing-Shanghai Railway at the west end of Wuxi Station. The total length of the reconstruction is about 6.1 kilometers, including 1.89 kilometers in Huishan District and 4.21 kilometers in the former Beitang District. It will reconstruct 1 extra-large bridge, 3 medium bridges, and 7 small bridges, and also involve the modification of communication, signal, and power facilities and the demolition of the old railway bridge.
In addition, due to the slope limitation of the reconstructed Railway Bridge No. 151, the waterway in the Beitang section of the original Xicheng Canal needs to be rerouted. The entrance will be moved 600 meters east of the original river channel, and 2 kilometers of the rerouted waterway will be excavated. In addition, an external transportation project will be organized and implemented for the central island formed during the renovation.
The entire Bridge No. 151 reconstruction project and related supporting projects are scheduled to have a construction period from June 2016 to the end of 2018, with a total investment of about 1.58 billion yuan (including land acquisition and demolition). After the project is completed, it will effectively ensure the safe operation of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and also ensure the safe and smooth passage of 1,000-ton ships.
It is reported that the preliminary bidding, the “three connections and one leveling” (water, electricity, road access, and site leveling) work of the construction project department, and the demolition of the main line part of the Bridge No. 151 reconstruction project on the Wuxi section of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway have been completed. Due to the difficulty of constructing some cross-line bridges within the project scope and the need for closed construction, surrounding urban main roads such as Jianghai West Road, Fengxiang Road, Fengbin Road, Qiangui Road, and Xinghe Road will be subject to traffic control, which will have a certain impact on the traffic operation of the road network in the construction area. At present, the traffic organization plan for the Bridge No. 151 reconstruction project has been basically completed, and the impact on urban traffic during construction will be minimized as much as possible.