At 10 a.m. on the 30th, the main bridge beam-lowering ceremony was held for the Yellow River Grand Bridge on the Yinchuan-Wuzhong passenger-dedicated line of the Yinchuan-Xi'an high-speed railway, marking the successful completion of the main bridge construction and laying a solid foundation for the early completion and opening of Ningxia's first high-speed railway.

The Yinchuan Airport Yellow River Grand Bridge, constructed by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group, starts at Yinchuan Hedong Airport and crosses the Yellow River westward to southern Yinchuan. With a total length of 13.814 kilometers and a main bridge length of 1,200 meters, it consists of two units of simply supported steel truss girders and two units of six-span continuous steel truss girders with flexible arches, using a total of 24,774.3 tons of steel.

Zhou Mingxing, deputy general manager of China Railway Construction Bridge Bureau, said that after winning the bid for the Yinchuan Airport Yellow River Bridge, China Railway Construction organized experts multiple times to demonstrate and optimize the construction plan. Under the premise of ensuring safety and quality, they optimized the plan and innovated processes in the approach bridge construction, reducing the total construction period of the entire bridge from the original 45 months to 14 months.

According to reports, the construction of the Yinchuan Airport Yellow River Grand Bridge is directly related to whether the entire Yinchuan-Xi'an railway can be completed on schedule. To build the Yinchuan Airport Yellow River Grand Bridge efficiently and quickly and to serve the overall construction schedule of the Yinchuan-Wuzhong section of the Yinchuan-Xi'an high-speed railway, China Railway Construction pioneered the "three-synchronization" construction technique for the main bridge steel truss girders in China. This involves setting up temporary construction platforms between bridge piers to achieve simultaneous construction of steel girder erection and bridge piers, simultaneous construction of main truss girder erection and flexible arch erection, and simultaneous construction of continuous girder erection and simply supported girder erection. This increased the steel truss girder erection from the originally designed four work faces to eight work faces, advancing the main bridge closure date by nearly a year and creating the "Ningxia speed" in domestic steel truss girder erection construction.

Fu Xinming, executive deputy commander of the Yinchuan-Wuzhong passenger-dedicated line command of the Yinchuan-Xi'an high-speed railway, said: "The Yinchuan-Xi'an high-speed railway is an important part of the national high-speed railway network. As Ningxia's first high-speed railway, it carries the high-speed rail dream of more than 6 million people in the autonomous region. After the entire line opens, the travel time from Yinchuan to Xi'an will be shortened from the current 12 hours to about 3 hours, greatly facilitating travel for people along the route. It is of great significance for accelerating the development and opening of the Ningxia Inland Economic Opening Pilot Area, revitalizing the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia revolutionary old areas, promoting economic and social development along the route, and deepening the national 'Belt and Road' initiative."

Local farmer Ma Zhenzhong, who is in the rice business, told reporters that after the high-speed railway opens, one can make a round trip to Xi'an in a day by high-speed rail and reach Beijing the same day, which is very convenient.