October 9

With a total weight of about 800 civil airliners

—a 39,000-ton swivel bridge

slowly rotating 53 degrees clockwise

designed by China Railway Shanghai Design Institute and constructed by China Railway 14th Bureau Group

currently the heaviest swivel bridge in China without a cast-in-place closure segment

the heaviest integral swivel bridge

Shandong Linzi-Linyi Expressway

the swivel bridge spanning the Wari Railway achieved precise closure

marking a solid step for the northern section of the Linlin Expressway toward

the goal of opening to traffic within the year

The Wari Railway is a major heavy-haul corridor for transporting Shanxi coal and is also China's first 30-tonne axle-load heavy-haul railway built in a single phase. To minimize the impact on train operations and ensure safe and stable railway traffic, the project adopted a "build first, then swivel" construction method: construction was first carried out on both sides of the railway, and the bridge was swiveled into place after the superstructure was completed.

The bridge before swiveling

The project manager explained that the swivel bridge spanning the Wari Railway is a key controlling project of the entire line. The swivel span is 170 meters long and the deck is 38.2 meters wide, using variable-depth prestressed concrete box girders constructed with the cast-in-place on falsework method. The cast-in-place falsework for the girder is only 16 meters from the railway catenary, imposing high requirements on girder alignment control and technical precision, with significant safety risks and complex construction organization.

The bridge during swiveling

At 8:30 a.m., at the command of the on-site chief commander, two continuous jacks slowly pulled the spherical hinge supporting the bottom of the bridge, and the swivel bridge began to rotate slowly clockwise at a steady rate. Within the scheduled 60-minute railway "window period," it moved from being almost parallel to the railway line to gradually spanning it, arriving precisely at the design position.

During construction, technicians used the BeiDou navigation positioning system and multiple sensors to monitor the bridge rotation angle in real time. Through "full-process visualization and intelligent control," they conducted advance analysis and early warning, ensuring that construction within the blockade period was safe and controllable.

The bridge after swiveling

The Linlin Expressway is an important part of the "Vertical Line 4" in Shandong Province's "nine vertical, five horizontal, one ring, seven radial and multiple connecting" expressway network. It starts from the Zhanlin Expressway in the north and ends at the Rilan Expressway in the south, with a total length of 192.64 kilometers, a design speed of 120 km/h, and six lanes in both directions. The project passes through areas such as the Heitieshan Scenic Area, the Lushan Scenic Area, and the Yimeng Mountain red revolutionary base area, and is of great significance for optimizing and improving the province's road network layout and promoting the integrated development of the Lunan economic circle.