The single-cable pull of the tunnel anchor reaches 50,000 tons, the world's largest! On June 15, the Nanjinguan Yangtze River Bridge, a control project of the Yichang West Expressway, reached a major milestone as the tunnel anchor on the north bank officially began excavation.

The tunnel anchor is the core load-bearing structure of the Nanjinguan Yangtze River Bridge and a key component that bears the main cable tension and ensures the overall stability of the bridge; its construction quality directly determines the safety performance and service life of the entire bridge. Both the north and south banks of the Nanjinguan Yangtze River Bridge adopt tunnel anchor construction.

"To use a vivid analogy, a traditional gravity anchor is like a large steelyard weight, relying on its own weight; whereas a tunnel anchor is like putting a stopper inside a bottle, using clever leverage," introduced Wang Jinxu, deputy chief engineer of the Yichang West Expressway Section 2 project of CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd. The tunnel anchor now under excavation relies on the mechanical characteristics of the bedrock of the Xiling Gorge mountain to build the anchoring system; compared with traditional gravity anchorages, it offers advantages such as smaller excavation volume, less land occupation, less ecological disturbance, and suitability for mountainous terrain.

Previously, the Nanjinguan Yangtze River Bridge had successfully completed the pile foundation construction of the north bank main pier. The current excavation of the bridge's tunnel anchor, forming a two-pronged attack posture together with the main pier construction, will greatly accelerate the overall construction progress.

The Nanjinguan Yangtze River Bridge is the first "bridge-tourism integration" project in Hubei Province and has been selected as a demonstration project of the Ministry of Transport's "Transportation Powerhouse" initiative. It adopts a unique double-deck design: the upper deck is a two-way eight-lane expressway to ensure traffic efficiency; the lower deck features a dedicated slow-traffic system where tourists can walk, cycle, or take sightseeing electric vehicles in the future. The bridge itself is an aerial viewing platform, and in the future it will connect multiple well-known scenic areas such as the Yangtze Three Gorges National Geopark, Qingjiang National Forest Park, and Chexi Scenic Area, achieving a "string of pearls along one line," and is of great significance for improving the Three Gorges comprehensive transportation system and serving the construction of the national major strategic project of the Three Gorges New Waterway.

Source: Hubei Daily