On the afternoon of September 5, with the placement of the bridge deck panels, the first side span of the Xijin Yujiang Grand Bridge on the Shanglin-Hengzhou Expressway in Guangxi was successfully closed, marking that the bridge construction has fully entered the sprint stage of full-bridge closure and laying a solid foundation for opening to traffic next year.

The Xijin Yujiang Grand Bridge is the only controlling project of the entire first phase of the Shangheng Expressway. The bridge has a total length of 1,190 meters, with a main bridge length of 680 meters and a main span of 400 meters. It is a cable-stayed bridge with a steel-concrete composite girder and double towers and double cable planes, in which the side span is a concrete girder, and the secondary side span and the central span are steel-concrete composite girders. The side-span segment Z1 closed this time is 12 meters long, with a maximum single-lift weight of about 34 tons.

It is understood that the construction unit, together with the monitoring unit, strictly controlled the installation accuracy of the first steel girder segment and conducted continuous monitoring of the steel girder installation before the side-span closure, collecting and analyzing the temperature-affected values of the steel girder to ensure smooth side-span closure. On-site measurements showed that the closure error of the north side span of the bridge was 5 millimeters, achieving precise millimeter-level closure and alignment.

The Shangheng Expressway is an important transportation network project in Guangxi's three-year campaign to strengthen infrastructure shortcomings in the "Five Networks" construction. Once completed, the project will become a direct link among Shanglin, Binyang, and Hengzhou, helping Nanning build a regional international comprehensive transportation hub center.