On January 26, as the last span of steel box girder was pushed into place, the main bridge steel box girder of the Linyi Yellow River Bridge was successfully closed, laying a solid foundation for its opening to traffic in 2024.

The Linyi Yellow River Bridge connects Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. It is a controlling node project of the G3511 Hebao Line of the national expressway network and an important component of Shanxi Province's "Three Vertical, Twelve Horizontal, Twelve Ring" highway plan. The project is invested in by China Railway Construction Investment Group and constructed by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group, with a total investment of 4.645 billion yuan. The route length is 20.914 kilometers and the bridge length is 5,427 meters, setting four world records. The main bridge adopts a constant-depth continuous steel box composite girder, constructed by incremental launching from launching platforms on both the Shanxi and Shaanxi sides in opposite directions. The four indicators—continuous launching length, maximum launching length, number of synchronously controlled jacks during launching construction, and amount of weathering steel used—all rank first in the world. It is for this reason that the Linyi Yellow River Bridge has also been listed by the Ministry of Transport as a demonstration project for the creation of a "Safe and Durable Century-Quality Project."

The Linyi Yellow River Bridge is a smart bridge that has achieved abundant scientific and technological results. During construction, the bridge faced difficulties such as indistinct beach and channel zones, a high longitudinal alignment, poor geological conditions, high seismic intensity, large scour depth, high wind speed at the bridge deck, and significant temperature effects. The project consistently adhered to the management philosophy of "experimentation first, scheme pre-control, expert guidance, and scientific research support," established an innovation studio, created a smart construction platform, and relied on "informatized and intelligent" management means to ensure the smooth closure of the bridge. During the construction period, the project achieved more than 30 scientific research results, built a smart construction management system based on BIM technology, carried out research on key technologies for smart bridge inspection, and innovatively developed an informatized monitoring construction method for the assembly and launching of long-span, multi-span closed steel box girders, which was applied throughout the launching construction process.

The Linyi Yellow River Bridge is also a green and eco-friendly bridge. As a Yellow River highway bridge spanning two national-level nature reserves and two provincial-level nature reserves, its mudflat areas host more than 20 species of national key protected first- and second-class birds. The project consistently implements the strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, boldly experimenting and exploring, and has carried out research projects on construction impacts and environmental protection measures. It adopts measures such as uncoated weathering steel, opaque zigzag sound barriers, runoff systems, and mud circulation systems to effectively reduce the disturbance of construction to the ecology of the Yellow River Basin, minimize the impact of project construction on the original ecological environment, and achieve harmonious coexistence between project construction and the natural ecology.

After completion, the project will improve the convenient, intelligent, green, safe, and interconnected comprehensive transportation network for leaving the province from southern Shanxi, accelerate the interconnection of highway and railway transportation lines among Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan provinces, and shorten the travel time from Yuncheng, Shanxi to Tongchuan, Shaanxi from 4 hours to 2.5 hours, making it an important transport corridor connecting the Yuncheng area with Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and other regions. In addition, the project is interconnected with the mother river, the wetlands of the reserves, the tourism highways along the Yellow River, and the historical and cultural relics along the banks, helping to deeply implement the major national strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.