The world’s largest piling vessel has made its debut in the East China Sea, where it drove a 98.5-meter steel pipe pile into the seabed, accelerating the construction of the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Railway Bridge.
The Erhang Changqing, the world’s largest piling vessel, in the East China Sea [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The Erhang Changqing, developed by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company Ltd., features the world’s highest derrick at the stern and can install piles weighing up to 700 tons with diameters of up to 7 meters, even in challenging marine conditions.
The vessel’s core component — a 28-meter-long, 385-ton main oil cylinder with a diameter of nearly 2 meters — is the world’s largest in terms of weight, diameter and length.
The Erhang Changqing has world’s highest derrick at the stern, with the largest piling capacity. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Over the next two months, the Erhang Changqing will drive approximately 200 similar piles for the bridge. As a key project of the newly constructed Nantong-Ningbo high-speed railway, the 29.2-kilometer Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Railway Bridge will be the world’s first of its kind to cross a strong tidal bay while maintaining an ultra-low water resistance rate.
The Erhang Changqing, the world’s largest piling vessel, in the East China Sea [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
