An important milestone in bridge construction: another record in China! (6 photos)

In 2024, another major project was implemented in China, confirming the Celestial Empire's leadership in global bridge construction. The country holds several significant records at once and today it can boast dozens of iconic objects confirming the ability of local engineers to solve the most complex problems.





A new structure erected in the south of China in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has joined the list of record holders. This four-lane automobile crossing over the Hongshui River has the world's largest arch span - 600 m. In this indicator, it surpasses the Pingnan Third Bridge, built in 2020 in the same region, by 25 m. Now the TOP-5 of this list is exclusively Chinese. And in the TOP-50 there are exactly 39 of them, and 29 of them were built in the last fifteen years. Novosibirsk's Bugrinsky Bridge, opened in 2014, ranks 36th at 380 m.



The new record holder, the Longtan Tianhu Bridge, has a total length of 2.5 km (the riverbed section is 760 m) and is part of the expressway between Pingtang and Tian'e counties. It crosses a deep reservoir on the Hongshui River, just above the Longtan Dam. As the American magazine Engineering News-Record (ENR) noted this summer in one of its issues, this project has become an important milestone in bridge construction.









The campaign, which launched in 2020, used a number of advanced technologies, including vacuum filling concrete with pre-stressing of anchor structures. This method was developed by South Korean engineers and patented in 2015. As noted, its successful use at a site in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region opens up new possibilities in the construction of arched structures of similar sizes.



Previous record holders (arch spans longer than 450 m) were built of steel. In 2025, Fenglai Bridge will be commissioned in China, which will take second place in the rating in terms of span length - 580 m. But it is being built using a more conventional technology, so it will become the largest arched bridge with a truss structure made of steel. The total length of the crossing over the Daxi River gorge will be 1.1 km, and the height will be 300 m.