On January 31, the north and south side towers of the Jinan Phoenix Yellow River Bridge—the world's largest-span three-tower self-anchored suspension bridge, invested in and built by Jinan Urban Construction Group and constructed by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd.—were successfully topped out. The middle tower had previously been topped out on June 14, 2020. With this, the main structure construction of all three towers has been fully completed.

The Jinan Phoenix Yellow River Bridge is a north-south trunk road connecting Jinan New East Station on the south bank of the Yellow River with the center of the Cuizhai area on the north bank. The bridge has a total length of 3.7 kilometers, with a main bridge length of 1,332 meters. It is designed as a three-tower (steel tower) self-anchored suspension bridge structure, with a main span of 2×428 meters and a full deck width of 61.7 meters, making it the widest bridge over the Yellow River; both its span and deck width rank first in the world among bridges of the same type.

The three main towers of the bridge are all steel A-shaped towers with a pentagonal single-box three-cell cross-section. The middle tower is 126 meters high, and the side towers are 116.1 meters high. The standard segment height of the tower columns is 4 meters, with the heaviest segment weighing about 90.5 tons, and the segments are connected by full welding.

“The construction sequence of the side towers differs from that of the middle tower. For the main bridge steel box girder, we adopted the incremental launching process from both banks toward each other; the box girder needs to be launched past the two side towers and finally closed at the middle tower. Therefore, the construction of the middle tower is not affected by the launching of the steel box girder, while the upper columns of the side towers can only be constructed after the main bridge steel box girder is closed.” explained Li Xiangyang, deputy production manager of the CCCC Second Harbor Engineering project department. “Because the steel box girder deck is extremely wide, the tower columns are tall, and the segments are heavy, the lifting and hoisting of the upper columns of the side towers involves high risk and great difficulty and places high demands on lifting equipment. To this end, we used large crawler cranes in super-lift mode for construction.”

“Under the impact of the pandemic, the client Jinan Urban Construction Group strictly followed relevant government requirements, implemented guidance and services for epidemic prevention and control and construction production, and ensured the input of construction personnel, equipment, and materials. In 2020, the bridge successfully completed key milestones such as the topping out of the middle tower and the closure of the main bridge, and achieved unmanned construction for the launching of the steel box girder, laying a solid foundation for the smooth topping out of the three towers.” Li Xiangyang introduced that after the topping out of the three towers, the project department will carry out main cable erection and make every effort to advance the 2021 task targets.

The Jinan Phoenix Yellow River Bridge is an important part of Jinan's development and construction of the Yellow River New Area and a key project in realizing Jinan's “North Rise” strategy. Once completed, the project will play a huge role in improving the regional planned road network, enhancing the road network's transport capacity, and improving the regional traffic travel environment. It is of great significance for promoting the construction of the Jinan Old and New Kinetic Energy Conversion Pilot Zone, expanding urban development space, and promoting Jinan's economic development. At that time, citizens on the north and south banks of the Yellow River will need less than 4 minutes to cross the bridge.