Main span of expressway bridge in C China's Wuhan swings into place

After swinging 71 degrees horizontally and clockwise across a busy railway and a thoroughfare for 60 minutes, the main span of an expressway bridge in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, successfully reached its permanent position on May 9.

The main span of an expressway bridge swings horizontally and clockwise across a busy railway and a thoroughfare in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Hubei Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.)

The expressway bridge is located over Wuhan forest avenue, a traffic artery and landscape avenue in the city, as well as the railway connecting Wuhan and Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province. It is also close to an existing overpass, and crosses 220-kilovolt high-voltage power lines at close range. All these factors presented high safety risks for the construction work.

In an effort to ensure that the main span, which weighs about 14,000 tonnes, swung safely and smoothly into place, construction teams adopted an advanced bridge weigh-in-motion system and bridge structural health monitoring system, and carefully calculated the precise balance weight, which was finally determined to be 300 tonnes.

The main span of an expressway bridge swings horizontally and clockwise across a busy railway and a thoroughfare in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Hubei Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.)

Meanwhile, construction teams also used total stations to monitor the bridge angles and attitudes in real time, and used other devices to track wind speed and direction, the rotational speed and spatial attitude of the bridge beam, going all-out to make sure every procedure was science-based and under control.

The expressway bridge is part of the reconstruction and extension project of a section of Wuhan's fourth ring expressway. The section, which spans 30.3 kilometers, is the overlapping section of Wuhan's fourth ring expressway, the expressway between east China's Shanghai and southwest China's Chongqing municipalities, as well as the expressway linking Fuzhou city in southeast China's Fujian Province and Yinchuan city in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The main span of an expressway bridge swings horizontally and clockwise across a busy railway and a thoroughfare in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Hubei Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.)

The reconstruction and extension project officially kicked off in April 2022. Upon completion, the project is expected to greatly relieve the traffic pressure on Wuhan's fourth ring expressway.

The main span of an expressway bridge swings horizontally and clockwise across a busy railway and a thoroughfare in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Hubei Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.)

Construction workers are busy with the construction of an expressway bridge in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Hubei Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.)