Southwest China province accelerates construction project
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E-mail Xinhua, October 3, 2023
As soon as the sun begins to shine on a main girder of the Huajiang river gorge bridge, construction worker Ma Haichepo puts on his safety equipment for another busy day working at an altitude of more than 200 meters.
Ma works on the construction site of the Huajiang river gorge bridge, which is part of the Liuzhi-Anlong expressway project in Guizhou Province, the hinterland of southwest China.
After the bridge is completed, it will connect the two sides of the Huajiang river gorge. The bridge will stand some 625 meters above the water, Ma said.
Ma is currently working on the 204-meter-high main girder on the Anlong bank.
Though the wind can be heard howling through the gorge from atop the girder and there is a drop of hundreds of meters below, the skilled worker and his colleagues seem relaxed, installing gantries that will soon lift heavy materials to the high altitude.
Ma is a member of the local Yi ethnic group, and, after years of working on construction sites, he appears older than his 35 years.
With nearly 20 years of experience in lifting construction materials at high altitudes, Ma is not afraid of most of the dangers his job brings. But sudden and strong gusts of wind still scare him.
"There is often turbulent wind at the gorge, and it mostly happens all of a sudden," Ma explained. "Sometimes, I can't stand still at all when there is strong wind. I can only squat down as soon as it happens."
As security guarantees are now in place and facilities have been set up, Ma and his colleagues feel more reassured than they did in the past.
To accelerate the construction of the bridge during the ongoing National Day holiday, more than 200 technical and construction workers like Ma are continuing their work on the frontline. Thanks to their efforts, more infrastructure that is crucial to people's livelihoods is being built in China.
Many bridges have been built over the years in the karst mountain landscape of Guizhou Province, where 92.5 percent of the land is mountainous or hilly. Expressways and bridges have also been built to connect Guizhou's mountain ranges and river banks.
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