This will be a bridge getting on for the height of the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, our city’s tallest building. And living where we do along the Yangtze River, we know a thing or two about big bridges. But, as they say, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
This past Friday, 15 April, saw the completion of pile driving for the south main tower of the Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge that shall be some 350-metres high.
Those piles are each 97-metres long, as the Yangtze Evening News reports.
When complete, not only will the Bridge be the world’s highest suspension bridge, it will also boast the world’s longest-single span, bridging the entire Yangtze over 2,300 metres.
To put that in perspective, that’s an incredible 900 metres longer than the main span of our Nanjing Qixiashan Yangtze River Bridge (formerly the Nanjing No. 4 Bridge), itself a record breaker when it was opened.
The steel casing for the tower’s foundations was begun on 26 August of last year and completed just 85 days later.
Work on the first pile driving then began on 28 December. Now that is complete, the construction effort shall turn its focus to the tower’s cofferdam.
The Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge is aptly named, as it is to connect the cities of Rugao, Jingjiang and Zhangjiagang. Respectively, those cities come under the jurisdiction of Nantong and Taizhou on the northern bank of the Yangtze, and Suzhou to the south.
Along a total length of approximately 30 kilometres, the cross-river section of the Bridge has a total length of 7,859 metres, including approach bridges. The eight-lane road atop them is to have a design speed of 100 kilometres per hour.
Construction of the Bridge is of great significance in implementing the national strategy that is the integrated development of cities across the Yangtze River Delta.
