On the morning of March 20th, after nearly 4 hours of precise adjustments and alignment, the Gao Lan Port Bridge of the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage Project successfully completed its closure joint. This marks the first closure joint of the main bridge among the two main bridges of the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage Project, signifying a significant breakthrough in the upper structure construction of the project.
According to reports, the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage is another super-large-scale cross-sea project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, connecting Zhuhai and Jiangmen cities with a total length of about 31 kilometers. The cross-sea section consists of two main bridges: the Gao Lan Port Bridge and the Huangmaohai Bridge. The Gao Lan Port Bridge adopts a fully floating separation steel box girder structure, with a total of 97 girder segments, jointly constructed by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, China Road and Bridge Corporation, and Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries.
"To ensure the completion of construction safety and quality goals, we conducted multiple discussions and computational simulations, choosing to weld limiting plates on the outer belly plate of the steel box girders to fix both ends of the girders. We also optimized the matching fixtures and welding sequences. After the adjustments, the construction alignment and monitoring alignment errors were within a range of 10 millimeters, achieving high-precision closure joint," said Shen Dawei, Chief Engineer of the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage Project.
To reduce structural self-weight and improve aerodynamic performance, the main girder of the Gao Lan Port Bridge adopts a split steel box girder, with the box body connected by a middle crossbeam, resembling a barbell, thereby featuring characteristics of "heavy ends and light middle" and "weak stiffness in the middle," which posed challenges for deformation control during the lifting stage.
It is reported that the inclined cables of the Gao Lan Port Bridge adopt high-strength, low-relaxation parallel steel wires, with a total of 92 inclined cables on the double-cable surface of a single tower, the longest being approximately 387 meters, and the maximum weight of a single cable (excluding anchoring devices) being about 33.4 tons, with a total weight of approximately 1424 tons for the inclined cables of a single tower.
"Since the successful erection of the first steel box girder of the Gao Lan Port Bridge on June 19, 2023, it took 275 days for the closure joint of the Gao Lan Port Bridge. The entire project construction team has overcome all obstacles," said Zhu Chao, person in charge of the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage Project. Currently, the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Passage Project is progressing smoothly, with all five main towers of the Huangmaohai Bridge and Gao Lan Port Bridge capped, the closure joint of the Gao Lan Port Bridge completed, and the Lion Mountain Tunnel and Elephant Mountain Tunnel passing through successively. The construction of 30 sections of the east tower steel box girder, 21 sections of the middle tower steel box girder, and 30 sections of the west tower steel box girder of the Huangmaohai Bridge has been completed. All builders are guided by the goal of high-quality construction and strive to complete the main body of the project by the end of the year.
The final steel box girder of the Gaolan Port Bridge has been successfully lifted into place.
Admiring the view of the High Lantau Bridge after the merger. Images provided by Guangdong Transport Group.
