It is reported that the Panzhihua Jinsha River Bridge is a key, difficult and controlling project of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway capacity expansion and renovation project. It is a double-track low-tower cable-stayed railway bridge with a total length of 473.5 meters, and its girder crosses the Jinsha River at a height of 63 meters above the water surface. Its main span is 208 meters, the longest among double-track railway low-tower cable-stayed bridges under construction in China. The cable-girder anchorage technology using anchor blocks above the bridge deck for the stay cables is the first of its kind in China. Compared with the lower anchorage type used on ordinary bridges, this technology makes construction and later operational monitoring more convenient and greatly reduces maintenance costs.
The Chengdu Business Daily reporter learned that the bridge also uses the largest-tonnage hyperbolic spherical bearings and shear-key seismic isolation system currently available in China. During construction, a variety of new materials, new processes, new structures and new equipment, as well as a number of technological innovation inventions and applications, were adopted, which are of promotional significance for the construction of railway bridges crossing major rivers in the mountainous areas of western China.
As a key project in the national Western Development “13th Five-Year Plan”, the Chengdu-Kunming Railway capacity expansion and renovation project has a total length of about 900 kilometers and a design speed of 160 km/h. It connects Chengdu to the north and Kunming to the south, and is an important railway corridor in the southwest region for the “Belt and Road” connection to Southeast Asian seaports. It plays an important role in poverty alleviation and development in the contiguous impoverished area of the Daliang Mountains.
The Chengdu-Kunming Railway double-track line is expected to be fully open in 2022. By then, it will take only more than four hours from Panzhihua to Chengdu, greatly improving travel for Panzhihua residents and the level of logistics transportation between Chengdu, Panxi and Kunming.