According to reports, Jilin Province's largest railway-crossing cable-stayed bridge is the most technologically sophisticated and most difficult part of the Two-Horizontal, Three-Vertical Expressway project, and is hailed as a super project close to home.

　　The construction workers will spend three years and use 50,000 cubic meters of concrete to complete this project with a total investment of 160 million yuan. The amount of steel used is also enormous: more than 8,800 steel components, exceeding those of an Eiffel Tower. As an important node of the overall Two-Horizontal, Three-Vertical Expressway project, the completed six-lane dual carriageway bridge will not only dramatically improve traffic conditions near the intersection of Yatai Street and Changbai Road, but will also connect the northern and southern urban districts, providing tremendous support for the smooth and convenient flow of traffic throughout Changchun.

　　Of course, any huge project starts from a single point, and this cable-stayed bridge is no exception. For it, this point is not an impressive number: 368 meters, the length of its main bridge. But this short distance has become a huge challenge for the engineers, because these 368 meters must span both ends of a street, a bridge opening, and 18 railway lines, and during construction the area beneath the large bridge opening cannot be completely closed off. As a result, the space left for the engineers to work in will become very narrow. And that is not the most difficult part: a semi-floating cable-stayed bridge cannot set up scaffolding beneath the bridge deck for operations like other bridges, so the engineers had to find a safe and reliable method of suspended operation. The engineers tailor-made a basket for the bridge, with a span of more than 20 meters and a weight of more than 200 tons. The basket hangs from the already completed bridge deck and moves forward little by little, 6 meters at a time. Time and safety are of great significance to a project. To ensure the safe movement of the hanging basket, the engineers designed two 70-centimeter jacks; once built, they could move 60 centimeters at a time, more than doubling efficiency.

　　But during this process, the engineers also had to wait for a number: 90. This number represents the strength of the concrete. The bridge is designed to withstand level 10 to 12 gales and magnitude 6 earthquakes, and its construction requires the utmost precision. Because there are no piers, the entire weight of the bridge is borne by these steel cables. As important components of a cable-stayed bridge, each steel cable weighs more than 3 tons and is costly. Cable No. 10 costs nearly 200,000 yuan. The entire bridge has a total of 129 steel cables, with a total cost of more than 14 million yuan. Each cable has a different weight and tensile force; the maximum tensile force of a single cable is 470 tons, equivalent to the weight of 10 Leopard main battle tanks. The challenge facing the engineers is to perfectly connect these enormous cables with cable ducts of just over 10 centimeters.

　　From the start of construction on April 24, 2011, to today, the engineers have spent two years gradually shaping Jilin Province's largest railway-crossing cable-stayed bridge. Construction continues, and in another year the bridge will be officially completed. It will become a new landmark that people talk about with relish, and together with the other sections of the expressway it will make urban traffic better and life better, and this is inseparable from the super projects close to home.