China’s rotating bridge megaproject

Major world-first as China rotates a continuous beam railway bridge over a highway. The 231m bridge comprises two 107.5m long rotating T-beams.

At 5:18 am on November 12, at the construction site of the Ma (Anshan) intercity railway located in Lintou Town, Hanshan County, Maanshan City, the two continuous beam T structures of the trans-Wu (Lake) He (Fei) Expressway bridge constructed by the four companies of the Fourth Bureau of China Railway successfully completed the “air rotation” after a smooth rotation of 98 degrees. It marks the first time in the world that asymmetric continuous beam belt arch flat turn smoothly docking, and the construction of Chao Ma intercity railway has made phased progress. The continuous beam bridge span combination is (58+115+58) meters continuous beam arch structure. The construction method is first cast in place parallel to the highway support, then turned and closed in the middle span above the highway. The single rotating T-frame beam is 107.5 meters long, 15.7 meters wide and weighs 10237 tons. The rotation lasted 3 hours and 18 minutes to complete the work, and the docking error of the beam and arch was controlled within 5 mm.

Source: Dafang KF