On the morning of June 29, the completion and opening ceremony of the Huayudong Bridge was held on the Qingzhen bypass section of the G320 line (Guiyang-Huangguoshu Highway) at K2133+183 meters. The smooth opening of the bridge will more effectively promote local economic development, better meet the travel needs of the people, and become a beautiful scenic spot on Hongfeng Lake.

The reporter learned on site that the original Huayudong Bridge is located within the territory of Qingzhen City on G320, spanning Hongfeng Lake, with a total length of 290 meters. It was completed and opened to traffic in March 1991. After the high-grade highway tolls were abolished in 2011, it was transferred to the Guiyang Highway Administration for management and maintenance. Because carbon fiber cloth was repeatedly pasted in a crisscross pattern on the bottom of the middle box girder, causing serious recurring defects, and the pier concrete suffered large-area spalling, the overall structural strength and durability of the bridge structure declined significantly. In 2014, after successive inspections by the National Road and Bridge Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, it was rated as a Class IV dangerous bridge and could no longer meet the needs of local economic construction and development. In view of the above reasons, on December 14, 2018, the Guizhou Provincial Highway Administration and the Guiyang Highway Administration decided to demolish and rebuild the Huayudong Bridge.

The newly built Huayudong Bridge is mainly being demolished and rebuilt on the original site, using a half-through concrete-filled steel tube arch bridge to replace the original truss composite arch bridge. The designed width of the main bridge is 14 meters, including two-way traffic lanes totaling 9 meters, with 2.50-meter-wide suspender zones and sidewalks on both sides; the bridge design load adopts the Highway Class I standard; the total project cost is 110 million yuan, and the total construction period is 24 months.

Rivers are easy to cross, but the bridge is difficult to demolish. Because the old bridge is a truss composite arch bridge located in the Hongfeng Lake Scenic Area and a Class II drinking water source protection zone, blasting demolition cannot be used. The arch seats of the old bridge are close to the water surface, the design water level is higher than the bottom of the arch seats, the lake water is more than 30 meters deep, and it is impossible to erect supports under the lower edge of the arch ring. In addition, the demolition of the old bridge involves many construction steps, complex operating procedures, and great difficulty in suspended cutting of truss members, making the bridge extremely difficult to demolish. For this reason, after fully considering the various stringent requirements for demolishing the old bridge, the entire construction process gave top priority to the concept of green development, and the main arch of the new bridge was designed as a half-through steel tube basket-handle arch with a main span of 180 meters, "enclosing" the old bridge.

During construction, the builder pioneered the technique of building first and then demolishing, that is, using the newly built basket-handle arch and steel girders to lift the old bridge, changing the original axial force of more than 400 tons of the old bridge to 20 tons. On this basis, the bridge deck was successively cut and lifted away, achieving zero pollution of the water environment in the construction area. This approach maximally met the environmental protection requirements for protecting the scenic area and drinking water source, while significantly improving safety.

Since the start of construction on December 24, 2018, the Guiyang Highway Administration has overcome many difficulties, worked overtime, strictly supervised to ensure quality, and strictly controlled aspects such as shape design, color selection, and quality management, ensuring that the bridge was completed and opened to traffic on schedule.

It is understood that the newly completed Huayudong Bridge has obtained 11 national patented technologies and 1 provincial-level construction method. In particular, the nation's first "build-while-demolish" reconstruction method has become a model for bridge reconstruction in mountainous areas. After completion, the bridge has become Guizhou's first "basket-handle" highway bridge, which will more effectively promote local economic construction and better meet the travel needs of the people. At the same time, the red steel tube arch spans Hongfeng Lake like a beautiful rainbow, becoming a striking highway landscape on Hongfeng Lake.