China's Cable-Stayed Bridge Crossing Most Railway Lines Completes Rotation

Two sections of the Haxi Bridge in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province were connected on Nov 12 as its two 56,000-ton and 73.7-meter high towers completed rotation.

The cable-stayed Haxi Bridge crosses the most railway lines of any bridge in China and has the heaviest swiveling bodies in high-altitude and extremely cold regions. The overpass bridge is a main line that links the city's airport, high-speed railway stations and traffic arteries.

The two rotated parts had a 17-meter length difference, making the rotation difficult to balance.

The rotation was also the world's first to be engineered on an urban interchange that crosses large-scale railway lines at high altitude and in cold areas.

Surveyed and designed by China Railway Fifth Survey and Design Institute Group Co., Ltd., and contracted by China Railway 22nd Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the 843-meter long and 30-meter wide bridge has six lanes.

With a 198-meter span, the bridge has a concreting cast-in-place continuous beam structure and stretches over 48 railway lines and one main road.

Once operable, the bridge will improve comprehensive traffic capacity in western Harbin and promote development of new administrative areas including the districts of Qunli, Haxi, Ha'nan, Songbei and Pingfang.

As the interchange is connected to the airport expressway and the ring roads surrounding the city, it will contribute to worker movement and economic and cultural exchanges between Heilongjiang and other parts of China and the Far East Region.

The integrated part of the main tower and the continuous beam of the Haxi Bridge under rotation [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Workers prepare the traction steel cables for the rotation. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)