Mazhou Island in Jingjiang city ramps up building out the tower for the Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang-Rugao Yangtze River Bridge. [Photo/zhjjwx.jsjjw.cn]
Construction work on the 350-meter-high north main tower for the Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang-Rugao Yangtze River Bridge is currently underway on Mazhou Island, located in Jingjiang city in East China's Jiangsu province.
The bridge will span a total of 28 kilometers – making it the world's longest – with its main section across the Yangtze River measuring 2,300 meters. It will start from the Shanghai-Xi'an Expressway in Rugao and end at the Zhangjiagang Shugang Expressway.
Work on the bridge continues on Mazhou Island in Jingjiang city. [Photo/zhjjwx.jsjjw.cn]
The steel tower is being built with four steel pipe restrained concrete columns, each measuring 3.6 meters in diameter. The highest single section of the tower column will reach 13.5 meters and the heaviest will weigh 718 metric tons.
"The tower-bearing platform is set with 97 bored piles, each with a diameter of 2.8 meters, and the longest pile has a total length of 103 meters," said Yu Wen, deputy manager of the ZJG-A2 project.
Yu's team started building the first pile on Jan 1 and has completed 26 piles to date. It is expected to have them all finished around May 1.
Yu said the bridge has very strict requirements for precision control while the main tower comprises 30 sections, which requires the deviation of verticality of each section to be controlled within 2 millimeters.
The first section of the north main tower is expected to be operational by the end of November, according to the schedule.