On May 22nd, it was reported by the media that the main tower of Pier 4 of the Chaoma Railway Ma'anshan Yangtze River Road-Rail Bridge has been topped off. With this, all three main towers of the bridge have been successfully capped, signaling the upcoming comprehensive commencement of steel beam cantilever installation.
As a pivotal project of the Chaoma Intercity Railway, the Ma'anshan Yangtze River Road-Rail Bridge is located approximately 2.3 kilometers upstream from the existing Ma'anshan Yangtze River Bridge (road bridge). Spanning the main and secondary navigation channels, it connects to the approach bridges on both banks and the mid-river island. The total length of the bridge reaches an impressive 9.8 kilometers.
The design of the bridge is particularly noteworthy, with the main navigation channel bridge adopting a three-tower steel truss cable-stayed structure with a main span of (2 x 1120) meters, totaling 3248 meters in length.
This design not only makes it the world's first three-tower cable-stayed bridge with dual main spans exceeding a kilometer each, but also sets a new record for the world's largest span three-tower cable-stayed bridge. Additionally, it stands as the world's longest continuous steel truss cable-stayed bridge.
The bridge is designed with rich functionality, with the upper deck serving as a dual six-lane urban expressway to meet daily traffic needs, while the lower deck serves as a passage for the double-track Chaoma intercity railway, with space reserved for two railway lines.
The three main towers of the bridge are the North Main Tower (Tower 3), the Central Main Tower (Tower 4), and the South Main Tower (Tower 5), with heights of 308 meters, 345.6 meters, and 306 meters respectively. Towers 3 and 5 were topped out in August 2023 and January 2024 respectively, and the recent topping out of Tower 4 marks another significant milestone in the bridge's construction.
As a key part of the national "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network along the Yangtze River corridor, the Chaoma intercity railway spans approximately 61 kilometers, with a design speed of up to 350 kilometers per hour.
The railway connects to the Hefei-Hangzhou High-Speed Railway in the north and the Nanjing-Anqing High-Speed Railway in the east, providing convenient transportation links between Ma'anshan and the provincial capital of Anhui, Hefei. This connection plays a crucial role in promoting regional economic development and facilitating population mobility.
