World’s Longest-span Steel Arch Bridge Completes Steel-concrete Composite Beam Closure in Chongqing

According to China News Service, the final steel-concrete composite beam was hoisted, precisely aligned and secured at high altitude on 12 June, marking the full completion of all main steel structural works on Fenglai Dahe River Grand Bridge, the core control project of the Wulong-Liangjiang New Area Expressway in Chongqing, invested and constructed by China Railway Group.

Stretching 1,136.7 metres across a deep river valley in Wulong District of Chongqing, the bridge boasts a vertical drop of over 310 metres between its deck and the river surface, a height equivalent to a hundred storeys of buildings. The entire crossing adopts an all-steel structural design, with a total steel consumption hitting 25,800 tonnes.

The construction site presented a string of harsh natural constraints, including steep mountainous terrain, turbulent valley air currents and sharp temperature swings between day and night. The extended cantilever erection technique deployed also imposed extremely stringent standards for geometric alignment and internal stress control. 

The design team delivered systematic upgrades to beam layout, bearing arrangements and structural zoning, developing a spatial coordinated force-bearing framework to reinforce overall structural safety. Construction crews deployed fully rotatable lifting rigs to achieve accurate rotation and positioning of composite beams within confined working spaces. 

An intelligent full-coverage dynamic monitoring platform was erected to track real-time shifts in steel structure stress and geometry round the clock, with repeated fine-tuning and meticulous on-site operations securing ultra-precise assembly of every steel beam segment.

The Wulong-Liangjiang New Area Expressway runs for a total length of 37.18 kilometres. Once open to traffic, the route will create seamless transport links to prominent local tourist sites including Fairy Mountain and White Horse Mountain. Improved cross-regional connectivity will facilitate industrial collaboration across southeast Chongqing and enable smoother circulation of production factors across the local economy.

Engineering teams will move forward with deck surfacing, guardrail installation and auxiliary facility construction on the grand bridge following the composite beam closure milestone. Supplementary construction works across the whole expressway corridor will advance in parallel to deliver the full transport route in line with established construction timelines.