First Steel Tower Segment of the Middle Pylon of the Ma'anshan Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge Successfully Hoisted

On November 9, the first steel tower segment of Pier Z4 of the middle pylon of the Ma'anshan Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge on the Chaohu-Ma'anshan Intercity Railway, constructed by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, was successfully hoisted, marking that the middle pylon, a key control project of the entire bridge, has entered the steel tower construction stage.

The first steel tower segment of Pier Z4 of the middle pylon of the Ma'anshan Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge was successfully hoisted.

According to reports, the main bridge of the Ma'anshan Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge adopts a three-pylon steel truss cable-stayed bridge with a main span of (2×1120) meters and a total length of 3,248 meters, making it the world's first three-pylon cable-stayed bridge with two main spans exceeding one kilometer. Among the three main pylons, Piers Z3 and Z5 are side pylons with tower heights of 308 meters and 306 meters respectively; Pier Z4 is the middle pylon and the tallest tower of the entire bridge, with a height of 345.6 meters. It adopts a four-leg spatial structure, and its engineering volume is equivalent to the sum of the side pylons at Piers Z3 and Z5, making it a key control project of the entire bridge. All main pylons adopt a steel-concrete composite structure, and the cable anchorage zone of the main pylons (upper pylon column) adopts a steel tower form. The concrete structure of Pier Z4 is 223.5 meters high, and the steel tower has a total height of 121.5 meters, divided into 39 segments for hoisting, with the heaviest hoisting unit weighing 458 tons. The first steel tower segment hoisted this time is 7.5 meters high and weighs 262 tons.

The steel tower structure is large in volume and complex in configuration, involving great construction difficulty and high safety risks. To ensure the smooth hoisting and construction of the ultra-high and ultra-heavy steel tower columns, the project department joined hands with well-known hoisting equipment manufacturers to carry out research and development, and "tailor-made" the world's largest 15,000-ton-meter tower crane. The main tower is expected to be topped out in mid-May 2024.

According to reports, the Ma'anshan Road-Rail Yangtze River Bridge is a control project of the Chaohu-Ma'anshan Intercity Railway. The upper deck of the bridge is a two-way six-lane urban expressway, and the lower deck carries four railway tracks, of which two are for the Chaohu-Ma'anshan Intercity Railway and the other two are reserved railway tracks. As the world's first three-pylon cable-stayed bridge with two main spans exceeding one kilometer, the world's longest-span three-pylon cable-stayed bridge, and the world's longest continuous steel truss girder cable-stayed bridge, the project is large in scale, high in technological content, and complex in construction environment with great construction difficulty, setting multiple world records in bridge construction.