World's Largest Cable-Stayed Bridge Achieves Full Connectivity In East China

The Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, the world's largest span cable-stayed bridge, achieved full connectivity on Sunday (9 June) in Jiangsu Province, East China. The bridge is expected to open to traffic by the end of next April.

Connecting the cities of Changzhou and Taizhou, this bridge is the first cross-river facility to combine a highway, intercity railway, and roads over the Yangtze River, the world's third-longest river. After five years of construction, the bridge spans a total length of 10.3 kilometres, including 5.3 kilometres of road and rail sections.

Li Haifeng, deputy head at the construction site of Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, told China Media Group that the focus will now shift to constructing ancillary facilities. "The bridge is expected to pass the dynamic and static load testing and acceptance test by the end of next April, when the bridge will be ready to open to traffic," he added.

The bridge features a steel truss cable-stayed design with main span of 1,208 meters. It also includes two steel truss arch bridges, each with main spans of 388 metres, and a continuous steel truss bridge spanning 3×124 metres. This construction holds multiple world records, setting benchmarks for the largest span dual-use road and rail steel truss arch bridge, and the longest continuous steel truss structure.

The closure of the main girder was completed with an error of less than 2 millimetres. The construction team employed meticulous techniques to achieve high-precision alignment of the bolt holes at the bridge closure. This involved adjusting the spacing between closures using the main beam's longitudinal displacement, eliminating height discrepancies by regulating cable tension, and employing additional methods like temporary load movement on the bridge face.

These measures ensured consistent elevation and rotation angles for the steel trusses on both sides, resulting in a maximum deviation of just 2 millimetres.