At 3:00 AM on August 8, at the construction site of the Huai-Su-Beng Intercity Railway in Qugou Town, Xiangshan District, Huaibei City, the main span 3×140m continuous beam of the Xin Sui River Grand Bridge, the largest span continuous beam on the Huai-Su-Beng Intercity Railway, designed by Shanghai Institute and constructed by China Railway 16th Bureau, was officially closed. This marks a breakthrough in another key and difficult bridge project of the Huai-Su-Beng Intercity Railway, laying a solid foundation for the completion of the entire railway line.

Project site

　　"This bridge is the cantilever cast continuous beam with the largest span and the most spans on the entire line, and it is also a controlling node on the entire line constructed using the large-segment cantilever casting method," introduced Ruan Baiyi, head of the bridge specialty at China Railway Shanghai Design Institute, the project designer. The Xin Sui River Grand Bridge on the Huai-Su-Beng Intercity Railway is about 7.8 kilometers long and adopts an (80+3×140+80) meter continuous beam span, crossing the Xin Sui River, S238 Provincial Road, and Huaihai West Road in a single five-span continuous beam. The surrounding environment of the construction site is complex, and the construction features high safety risks and high environmental protection requirements.

　　"For the construction of the cantilever cast continuous beam, we specially set up a technical breakthrough team and a safety supervision team, and innovatively developed a diamond-shaped hanging basket, which effectively ensured the overall construction progress and quality of the continuous beam while expanding the working area, laying a solid foundation for the smooth completion of the construction task," introduced Shao Lichao, chief engineer of the Huai-Su-Beng Intercity Railway Section 1 project of China Railway 16th Bureau, the project contractor. As of now, the project's bridge pile foundations are 97% complete, pile caps 95% complete, pier columns 93% complete, and 19 continuous beams 88% complete. It is expected that all cast-in-place beam construction will be completed by the end of the year.