October 21 (Report) — As a new corridor for the western Chongqing region to enter the central urban area of Chongqing, the Chongqing-Suining Expressway Duplicate Line is advancing rapidly. On October 20, the main bridge of the Xiao'anxi Grand Bridge, a controlling project of the scheme, was successfully closed, laying a solid foundation for the bridge's full connection by the end of the year and the entire road's opening to traffic as scheduled next year.

"The closure of the main bridge means that the main structure of our most difficult and critical bridge project has been fully completed," said Zhou Yuqiao, chief engineer of the Civil Works Section III of the Chongqing-Suining Expressway Duplicate Line project. He explained that the significance of this milestone is that it will lay a solid foundation for the full connection of the Xiao'anxi River Grand Bridge's girder erection by the end of 2023.

It is understood that the Xiao'anxi Grand Bridge is located within Tongliang District, spanning the Xiao'anxi River and designed for both river crossing and flood discharge. The bridge has a total length of 3,607 meters, with high piers and long spans, complex techniques, great construction difficulty and high safety risks. More than 90% of the pier columns exceed 40 meters, with the tallest pier reaching 92.1 meters. It is one of the controlling projects of the entire scheme, and the closure of the main bridge is the top priority of the project.

"There are two difficulties in the construction of the main bridge of the Xiao'anxi Grand Bridge. First, cantilever casting is adopted, with on-site segment-by-segment pouring and a pumping height of more than 70 meters. Second, there is alignment monitoring: the entire bridge is pushed forward segment by segment from both ends, requiring modeling and third-party monitoring assistance to ensure the smooth closure of the main bridge while controlling errors to ensure the overall alignment is aesthetically pleasing," said Zhou Yuqiao, chief engineer of the Civil Works Section III of the Chongqing-Suining Expressway Duplicate Line project.

It is understood that the Chongqing-Suining Expressway Duplicate Line project (Beibei to Tongliang section) is one of the five radial expressway capacity-expansion projects in Chongqing's "Four Ring Roads, Twenty-Two Radials, Sixty Connecting Lines" expressway network plan. It has a total length of 27.238 kilometers and an investment of approximately 6.146 billion yuan, and is constructed by the Chongqing-Suining Duplicate Line Company under China Railway Construction Chongqing Investment Group. Once completed, the project will effectively supplement and improve the national and Chongqing municipal expressway networks, linking the Ring Expressway, Chongqing-Suining Expressway, Third Ring Expressway and other expressways to achieve rapid connection and transfer, forming a new corridor for the western Chongqing region to enter the Caijia-Yuelai-Jiangbei Airport line in the northern part of Chongqing's central urban area. It will help promote infrastructure connectivity and rapid economic development in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. At present, 98.59% of the substructure of the Xiao'anxi River Grand Bridge has been completed, and 80% of the T-girder erection has been finished. The entire bridge is scheduled to achieve double-width connection by the end of December.