A Phasic Victory: Joining of the Main Spans of the Flyover at Donglian Line of Xin’anjiang Road

After arduous work for more than 150 days and nights in the course of construction, the joining of the main spans of the flyover at east joining line of Xin’anjiang highway(formerly known as Fengxin Expressway) in Zunyi was completed on November 29, marking a phasic victory and a successful entry upon a new phase in the construction of the second PPP project undertaken by UCD, in spite of numerous difficulties.

Situated in the middle and western part of the central urban area of Zunyi, the Xin’anjiang highway starts from the bus company of Zunyi at the foot of the Fenghuang Mountain in the west, to the Liyi New Town in the east. The upper part of the main line, which has been built into a two-way, 6-lane arterial road for transportation purpose, is as long as 1.8 kilometers and is a fast passageway between urban agglomerations, forming a dot-to-dot easy approach amongst them. Serving as a two-way, 6-lane arterial road for everyday life purpose, the lower part of the main line stretches up to a length of 2.131 kilometers for the good of residents and neighboring areas alongside the line and in a bid to ease the huge pressure of traffic congestion that currently ails the urban areas. The completion of the Xin’anjiang highway will boost the rapid development of the economy in both old and new urban areas of Zunyi.

It was extremely difficult to build the Xin’anjiang highway. Large in size, the bridge is currently the largest municipal steel bridge, the longest steel truss bridge and the double-deck steel truss bridge of maximum span in China. With the curves of the bridge being complicated, the rod pieces being numerous and in different sizes, and bolting being used as a main approach, the construction called for an exponentially high accuracy of installation. Despite the complicated geological conditions, typical karst landforms such as back filled regions, karst caves and underground rivers, and in spite of the project passing through the old urban areas and cutting across the main lines of communication such as Sichuan-Guizhou Railway, the outer ring road and the east joining line, and the construction period being tight, UCD spent only five months to have completed in good quality 80% of the workload of the third tender section.