On June 10, all pile foundations for the north-bank main pier of the Three Gorges Bridge on the Yichang West Ring Expressway, invested in and built by Hubei Communications Investment Group and constructed by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd., were fully poured.

The Yichang West Ring Expressway starts in Yiling District of Yichang, crosses the Yangtze River, passes through Dianjun District, and ends at Gaojiayan Town in Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, with a total length of 46.997 kilometers. Among these, the Three Gorges Bridge is a key controlling project of the entire line, located at the Xiling Gorge mouth between the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam. Its upper deck carries a two-way eight-lane expressway, while the lower deck accommodates a slow-traffic sightseeing system. The bridge has a main span of 1,200 meters and a width of 42.6 meters, with the deck 270 meters above the river surface. It is currently the suspension bridge with the largest span in China featuring a composite girder of double-layer steel truss and UHPC bridge deck panels, as well as the widest steel truss suspension bridge over the Yangtze River and the first bridge integrating transportation and tourism in Hubei Province.

The north-bank main pier of the Three Gorges Bridge features a separated pile cap with a group pile foundation. The piles have a diameter of 3.4 meters and lengths ranging from 12 to 15 meters, involving high construction difficulty and stringent precision requirements. Meanwhile, because the construction site is located at the Xiling Gorge mouth, the terrain is steep and the site is narrow, severely restricting mechanical equipment operation and material transport. In addition, it is adjacent to the Yangtze River ecological control zone, where strict green construction standards apply, posing enormous challenges to project construction.

To ensure smooth construction progress, the project team optimized the construction plan in advance, rationally planned the work areas according to on-site terrain conditions, adopted standardized construction techniques such as refined hole formation, layered continuous pouring, and full-process dynamic monitoring, strictly implemented ecological and environmental protection construction measures, and precisely controlled each construction procedure, effectively overcoming the construction bottlenecks caused by terrain, environmental protection, and precision requirements. At the same time, an intelligent drilling monitoring system was introduced to control hole-forming precision in real time and strictly control pile foundation construction quality. In response to ecological and environmental protection requirements, complete sewage and mud treatment facilities were built, and all construction waste was centrally collected, transported, and disposed of, minimizing the impact on the ecological environment along the Yangtze River. Finally, after nearly six months of orderly work, all 32 main pier pile foundations on the north bank were fully poured and passed inspection, with all indicators meeting design requirements.

The upper deck of the Three Gorges Bridge carries a two-way eight-lane expressway, while the lower deck accommodates a slow-traffic sightseeing system. Once completed, the Yichang urban ring expressway will change from a "C" shape to a closed "O" loop, which is of great significance for optimizing the regional expressway network and river-crossing channel layout, improving the comprehensive transportation system of the Three Gorges, and serving the construction of the national major strategic project of the new Three Gorges water transport channel.

Source: Hubei Daily