The smart beam factory has opened 19 production lines, operating like an automobile assembly line, and can precast 30 box girders of various types per day; 12 hydraulic machines are lined up in a row, completing more than 20 pile foundations a day... Such a stunning scene appeared on April 25 at the Caidian section of the Han-Yi Expressway reconstruction and expansion project.

Beside the Han-Yi Expressway, where traffic flows continuously, the "four-to-eight" reconstruction and expansion site is also bustling with activity. A hydraulic pile driver more than 20 meters tall directly "inserts" pipe piles with a diameter of 1 meter, formed in a single pass, into the ground 30 to 40 meters deep. "Unlike traditional pile foundation construction, large pipe piles are prefabricated in factories, with no mud discharge on site. More importantly, this kind of construction, like building with blocks, can shorten the construction period by more than half a year," said Luo Yong, project department manager of the Hubei Communications Investment Construction Group.

Moreover, in response to the challenges of deep soft soil and complex geology along the Han-Yi Expressway, the pipe-pile column bridge effectively avoids the risk of differential settlement through deeply embedded precast pipe piles, eliminating the hidden danger of lane cracking at the root. At the same time, it overcomes the soil shortage dilemma of the Jianghan Plain and achieves a technological breakthrough of "strong support for soft soil sections."

The Han-Yi Expressway reconstruction and expansion project is about 270 kilometers long, with a total investment of 42.2 billion yuan, making it currently the largest expressway reconstruction and expansion project in China. As one of the expressways with the largest traffic volume in Hubei, the project not only faces difficulties such as a tight schedule and great pressure to maintain traffic, but also requires converting a large number of roadbeds into bridges during the reconstruction and expansion to release space beneath the bridges, so traditional techniques can hardly meet the demand.

How to solve this? Hubei Communications Investment Group tackled the problem through scientific and technological innovation, achieving two major technological breakthroughs nationwide for the first time — the large-scale application of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) precast bent caps, and the country's first large-scale expressway pipe-pile bridge construction, setting a benchmark for similar projects.

At the construction site of the 9.2-kilometer Xiantao Grand Bridge, a total of 542 UHPC precast bent cap formwork shells — the first large-scale application in China — are being hoisted. Entering the smart beam factory for the Han-Yi Expressway reconstruction and expansion project, jointly built by Hubei Communications Investment Group and China Railway 19th Bureau, a giant measuring 18.85 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 1.9 meters high attracts attention. Weighing 35 tons, it is not an ordinary box girder but a bent cap made of ultra-high performance UHPC material. "Compared with traditional bent caps, its strength is 5 times greater and its toughness 200 times higher. It not only has a light and graceful form but can also achieve prefabricated production like building with blocks, advancing the construction period by more than a year," said Dong Zhao, deputy general manager of Hubei Communications Investment Han-Yi Expressway Reconstruction and Expansion Company.

At a construction site near the Jianghan Canal in Jingzhou, tower cranes are swinging at the Yinjiangjihan Grand Bridge of the Han-Yi Expressway reconstruction and expansion project undertaken by CCCC Road & Bridge Construction. Driver Ai Jinlong sits comfortably in an air-conditioned room operating a 5G tower crane. The main tower supported by 22 group piles is "growing" at an average rate of 0.6 meters per day and is expected to climb to its final height of 123.28 meters by the end of August, completing the cable tower construction.

"Through technological empowerment, project construction has been significantly accelerated," Dong Zhao introduced. At present, cumulative investment in the entire Han-Yi Expressway reconstruction and expansion project has exceeded 16.8 billion yuan, including more than 5 billion yuan completed this year. It is expected that by the end of this year, the goal of opening four lanes in one direction from Wuhan West to Qianjiang will be achieved.

After the project is completed, it will comprehensively upgrade the capacity of the national expressway corridor, densify the comprehensive transportation network of the Wuhan-Xiangyang-Yichang "Golden Triangle," and, with the surging momentum of eight lanes in both directions, activate new momentum for the development of the industrial belt along the Yangtze River, building a "fast lane" for coordinated development between the Wuhan metropolitan area and the Yichang-Jingzhou-Jingmen metropolitan area.

Source: Hubei Daily