On the afternoon of February 25, at the construction site of the S409 Xiaba River Bridge Widening and Reconstruction Project, workers were operating large machinery to carry out pile foundation construction.

Main pier pile foundation construction is currently underway. Of the 22 piles, 14 have been completed, and the remaining 8 are expected to be finished by mid-March.To seize the golden construction period, the main bridge section did not halt work during the Spring Festival, with more than 40 workers remaining at their posts. After all staff returned on the eighth day of the first lunar month, the number of on-site construction personnel has exceeded 100. The current dry season is the 'golden season' for pile foundation construction; once water levels rise, construction will become more difficult.

The trestle bridge serves as the transport corridor and working platform for main bridge pile foundation construction, material transportation, and equipment access, preparing for main bridge construction during the flood season.

The Xiaba River Bridge is an important link connecting Huangzhou District and Xishui County, and it opened to traffic in 2004. The original bridge had four lanes in both directions with a width of 15.5 meters. With economic and social development, it has become difficult to meet growing traffic demand, with frequent congestion on the bridge deck, and the bridge's load-bearing capacity is also being tested, making upgrading and reconstruction urgently necessary. As a key transportation project in the 2025 'Project Construction Year' and 'Main Urban Area Rise' initiatives,the S409 Xiaba River Bridge Widening and Reconstruction Project has a construction length of 3.195 kilometers and an investment of approximately 615 million yuan. It officially started in October 2025 and is expected to be completed in September 2028.

Unlike conventional full demolition and new construction, the project adopts a 'demolition-reconstruction combination with south-side widening' construction model—only the old bridge's main bridge and part of the approach bridges will be demolished, while the rest will be strengthened and reused, with new widening on the south side.

This model avoids the increased costs of full demolition and reconstruction, saving substantial construction funds while meeting traffic upgrade needs and balancing economic benefits.

After reconstruction, the Xiaba River Bridge will undergo a magnificent transformation—the bridge will have a total length of 2,609.56 meters, with the main bridge designed as a (146+218)-meter single-tower hybrid girder cable-stayed bridge. After reconstruction and expansion, the bridge will have six lanes in both directions plus bidirectional non-motorized vehicle lanes/pedestrian walkways, with a deck width of 31.5 meters and a design speed of 80 km/h, meeting both urban expressway and Class I highway standards. The era of wide roads and narrow bridges will be over, thoroughly eliminating the traffic safety hazard of mixed pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the old bridge.

The single-tower hybrid girder cable-stayed bridge features an asymmetric design, with a masonry-type pylon. The main tower is 137 meters high, balancing stability and aesthetics. This design ensures the height and width requirements for the planned Class II inland waterway while echoing the Yanji Yangtze River Bridge and the Ehuang Yangtze River Bridge, creating an urban landmark.To ensure the bridge tower's load-bearing capacity, the main pier pile foundations reach a depth of 54 meters, and the transition pier pile foundations reach 38 meters, using a low-pile cap structure. The main navigation channel side adopts a steel-concrete composite girder, which is lightweight, has strong spanning capability, and is highly economical, while the side spans use cast-in-place concrete girder structures.As a key livelihood project that upgrades both roads and waterways, the Xiaba River Bridge is being built to the planned Ba River Class II waterway standard. The main span of the bridge is raised by approximately4 meters overall, with a navigable clearance height of 10 meters and a clear width of 200 meters, allowing the passage of 2,000-ton vessels.

Source: Huanggang Highway