Digital picture of the Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge. [File photo]

The Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan, Hubei Province, will set four world records for bridge construction when it is completed at the end of this month, a local newspaper reported today.

As the sixth bridge and the second highway-railway bridge over the Yangtze River, the Tianxingzhou Bridge will set four records with its 504-meter span, its 30-meter width, its load capacity of 20,000 tons and a permissable train speed of 250 kilometers per hour, the Yangtze River Daily reported.

Gao Zongyu, chief engineer of the China Railway Great Bridge Survey and Design Institute and the chief designer of the bridge, regards the bridge as the fifth milestone in Chinese railway bridge construction. The other four are the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (Jiangsu Province), the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge (Jiangxi Province) and the Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge.

"These bridges are witness to the work of Chinese bridge constructors. Continuous progress is being made in design, materials and construction methods," he told the newspaper.

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge has a 128-meter span and a designed train speed of only 80 kilometers per hour. "At that time more than 20,000 construction workers were involved in the project. However, in half a century, modern machinery has greatly improved efficiency and the number of workers for the Tianxingzhou Bridge is fewer than 2,000."

With an investment of more than 3 billion yuan (about US$428.6 million), construction of the Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge started on September 28, 2004. However, it was not until a year later that the final design was agreed upon and that the bridge would have four railway lines, including two express lines.

"The designed life expectancy of the bridge is 100 years and it can resist earthquakes of up to 7 magnitude on the Richter Scale and severe floods that would only be expected only once every 300 years," Gao said.

(Shanghai Daily August 26, 2008)