On July 31, with the hoisting of the last deck slab of the N93 panel of the main bridge steel truss girder of the Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge, the main bridge steel truss girder was successfully connected with the east approach bridge on the Banan side. The east bank of the Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge completed side-span closure, laying the foundation for the full bridge closure by the end of this month.

The Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge project is constructed by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd. It starts from Chenjiage Interchange in Dadukou District in the west, crosses the Yangtze River, and ends at Taiyanggong Interchange on the Inner Ring Expressway in Banan District in the east, with a total length of 3.687 kilometers. The control project, the Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge, is 1,384 meters long with a main span of 660 meters, making it the world's largest-span cable-stayed bridge with a steel truss girder for both road and rail traffic.

The main bridge steel truss girder is divided into 93 panels, each 15 meters long and weighing about 500 tons, connected by 16 members and 11,000 sets of high-strength bolts. The steel truss girder adopts an inverted trapezoidal layout. The upper deck is 38 meters wide and serves as an urban expressway river crossing with eight lanes in both directions, while the lower deck is 19.2 meters wide and serves as the river crossing for Rail Transit Line 18.

The entire bridge steel truss girder uses about 1.1 million sets of high-strength bolts, and the total weight of the steel truss girder is about 44,300 tons, exceeding the total steel used in the "Bird's Nest." The erection of the bridge steel truss girder uses the two main towers as supports, with double cantilever symmetrical assembly construction toward both sides. Side-span closure is completed first, followed by mid-span closure.

It is reported that this closure is located on the Banan side of the east bank of the bridge. The last three panels of the steel truss girder on the Banan side span directly over Binjiang Road in Banan, posing high safety risks for cross-line construction. The project department adopted a self-developed "self-propelled integrated protection platform" suspended beneath the steel truss girder to ensure the safety of cross-line construction.

The last three panels of the steel truss girder have no cable tensioning, the cantilever length of the steel truss girder is long, and the deflection at the end is large. The project technical team used the seesaw principle and adopted counterweight measures in the secondary side span and mid-span to make the side-span end "lift up," enabling the steel truss girder to successfully rest on the side pier and successfully complete side-span closure.

At present, 90 panels of the steel truss girder of the Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge have been installed, with installation progress reaching 97%. The steel truss girder deck length has reached 1,346 meters, and only 7.5 meters remain at the mid-span closure gap. Currently, the project construction team still needs six "window periods" for cross-railway construction to carry out steel truss girder construction over the Qiezixi Railway Station on the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. The full bridge closure is expected by the end of August.

After completion, the Baijusi Yangtze River Bridge project will become an important channel directly connecting the Longzhouwan area of Banan and the Yangtze River Culture and Art Bay Area. It will effectively improve travel conditions for residents in the area, promote regional economic development, and become a new landmark of the Yangtze River Culture and Art Bay Area.