On the morning of July 7, at the construction site of Contract Section LJ18 of the Jiuzhaigou–Mianyang Expressway, the last span of T-beams for the right carriageway of the Shuiquanba Grand Bridge, constructed by China Railway Tunnel Co., Ltd., was precisely positioned, marking the successful completion of the right-line bridges, subgrade, and tunnels within this contract section.

The pile foundation construction of the Shuiquanba Grand Bridge is located in a river channel, where the geological conditions are complex, with loose deposits, cobble layers, and abundant fissure water, making drilling jamming and slurry leakage likely during construction. This project has a total of 759 precast T-beams. The right carriageway of the Shuiquanba Grand Bridge adopted T-beam erection from the bridge end toward the bridge head. The last T-beam of the right carriageway was erected on July 7, 2021, ensuring the opening of the right-carriageway beam-erection passage. At present, only 139 T-beams remain for the left carriageway. Based on the current schedule, all T-beam precasting and erection tasks are expected to be completed by mid-September, and all bridge deck system construction by the end of October.

It is understood that the LJ18 section of the Pingwu County segment of the newly built Jiuzhaigou–Mianyang Expressway has a total length of 5,640 m. The section includes the extra-long separated Muzuo Tunnel; the main-line Shuiquanba Grand Bridge (counted as double carriageways), with the left carriageway 1,316.5 m long and the right carriageway 1,286.5 m long; three Mupi interchange ramp bridges and one medium bridge, totaling 1,122.806 m; and 120 m of subgrade.

After the entire line is completed and opened to traffic, the travel time from Mianyang to Jiuzhaigou County seat will be shortened to less than three hours, which will greatly improve the level of transportation infrastructure along the route, drive regional tourism development, and promote the economic development of ethnic minority areas along the route.