On July 30, after 47 hours of continuous effort, the Wujingyi Expressway Project Section 1 completed the first-layer concrete pouring for the main pier cap of the Hanjiang Grand Bridge. From this point on, the bridge will gradually "grow taller" step by step, officially entering the "fast lane" of construction, laying a solid foundation for safe flood-season passage and subsequent main tower construction.

The Hanjiang Grand Bridge is a key controlling project of the Wujingyi Expressway. Its bridge type is a single-tower composite girder cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 2×330 meters, and it is the single-tower composite girder cable-stayed bridge with the largest span and no auxiliary piers in China. Main Pier No. 2 is an integral rectangular pile cap 54 meters long, 29 meters wide and 6 meters high, located in the middle of the Hanjiang River channel, involving work within a deep-water deep foundation pit cofferdam. The main pier cap is poured in two stages; this pouring volume was 4,698 cubic meters of C40 concrete, a typical mass concrete construction. It also coincided with the critical flood-control period of "seven-down, eight-up" (late July to mid-August) and the hottest period of the year, so construction safety risks were relatively high, organization was difficult, and the schedule requirements were tight.

In order to complete the first-layer pouring before the next flood peak and thereby ensure the cofferdam passes the flood season safely, the project team of CCCC Central South Bureau organized multiple special meetings on pile cap construction and daily stand-up meetings with the central laboratory, the resident office, and the work crews to solve problems in the process, refine resource allocation and planned division of labor, and precisely control the quality of key parts. More than 120 workers on site rotated in three shifts for 24-hour uninterrupted operations, withstanding the dual test of high temperature and heat as well as rainstorm attacks, and ultimately completed the construction task on schedule in 12 days.

The Wujingyi Expressway is an important east-west corridor in Hubei Province and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. After the project is completed, it will be of great significance for promoting the integration of the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration into the new development pattern of dual circulation, and for advancing the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.