The two sides of the grand cable-stayed railway bridge over the Xijiang River in South China's Guangdong province, a section for the Nansha Port railway, were connected on Aug 12.
Designed by China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) and contracted by CRCC's China Railway 11 Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the 1,117.5-meter bridge has the longest double line freight railway span in the world, at 600 meters.
With a steel box mixed double girder structure and fixed by 96 pairs of stay cables, the bridge features two H-shaped bridge towers which are 208 and 200 meters tall.
An asymmetrical design was used to tackle the complicated environmental conditions of flood control and the waterway traffic, and will provide experience for similar construction in China.
A nearly 1:30 width-span ratio was designed to improve economical efficiency of freight transportation.
It's worth mentioning that the new type steel anchor beam technology, the composite stainless steel bridge decks and the new type orthotropic plates with a drainage function used in the cable-stayed bridge's tower anchorage zone were applied for the first time anywhere.
A major traffic infrastructure in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Nansha Port railway is about 88 kilometers and has a designed speed of 120 kilometers per hour.
It is a double line railway and transits Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Foshan and Guangzhou in Guangdong. It is mainly used in transportation of foreign trade containers, energy and major raw materials in Central, South and Southwest China.
A main part of the multimode transport network in the GBA, the railway is expected to link Nansha Port with European countries.
Passengers will also be able to travel on the railway in the future.
A view of the grand cable-stayed railway bridge over Xijiang River in South China's Guangdong province, a section of the Nansha Port railway [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Construction site of the bridge [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
An aerial view of the construction site of the bridge [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
A view of the bridge in the sunset [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
