On the 10th, Ma Zenggang, Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager of China Railway Baoji Bridge Yangzhou Company and Project Manager of the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, stated that the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge will achieve full-span closure by the end of May.

On May 10, the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge under construction, which will achieve full-span closure by the end of May. Photo by Yang Bo

　　Seeking strength through "new" approaches and pursuing development through "quality." On the 10th, China Railway Baoji Bridge Group held a media open day. Li Zongmin, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Railway Baoji Bridge, said, "Since its founding, China Railway Baoji Bridge has always taken 'developing Baoji Bridge, bringing happiness to employees, and contributing to society' as its mission, upheld the 'pathfinding vanguard' spirit of China Railway, aimed at high-quality development, unswervingly promoted technological innovation, made sustained efforts to tap development potential, persistently advanced openness and cooperation, and created one 'Baoji Bridge calling card' after another in the fields of steel bridges, railway turnouts, and new-type rail transit."

　　The Changtai Yangtze River Bridge has a total length of 10.03 kilometers and is located between the Taizhou Bridge and the Jiangyin Bridge. Its main navigation channel bridge adopts a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1,208 meters. The bridge is arranged in upper and lower decks: the upper deck carries a two-way six-lane expressway, while the lower deck carries a four-lane ordinary highway on the downstream side and a double-track intercity railway on the upstream side.

　　According to Ma Zenggang, the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge is the world's first river-crossing bridge integrating an expressway, an intercity railway, and an ordinary highway into a "three-in-one" structure. The bridge is large in construction scale and, once completed, will achieve "four world firsts" and set "six bridge records." The "four world firsts" include the first temperature-adaptive tower-girder longitudinal restraint system, the first "steel-concrete" hybrid structure spatial diamond-shaped bridge tower, the first stepped scour-reducing and self-weight-reducing caisson foundation, and the first "steel box-core concrete" composite cable-tower anchorage structure. The "six bridge records" are: the bridge with the largest-scale asymmetric arrangement of multifunctional loads, the cable-stayed bridge with the largest span, the steel truss girder with the greatest continuous length, the cable stay of the largest size made of carbon fiber composite material, the road-rail dual-purpose steel truss arch bridge with the largest span, and the parallel steel wire cable stay for bridges with the greatest strength.