With the last batch of concrete being placed, the main tower of the world highest roadway bridge which was constructed by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co.,LTD，(MBEC), completed construction successfully at 11:28, Sep. 28th, 2018，officially announcing that the construction of Shanghai-Nantong Railway/Roadway Bridge had made a great progress.

With full length of 11072 meters and span of 1092 meters, the Shanghai-Nantong Bridge is a cable stayed bridge with largest span in China. It is the world first bi-functional cable stayed bridge with span larger than 1000 meters. The bridge is a key project in the Hanghai-Nantong Railway project, and it also serves as the main transportation across Yangtz River for Shanghai-Nantong Railway, Nantong-Jiaxing Railway and Wuxi-Nantong Highway. It is design as six-lane highway on the upper level, and four-lane railway on the lower level.

In China, most bridge towers are lower than 260 meters, towers higher than 300 meters are quite limited. The main tower on the north side of Shanghai-Nantong Bridge is as high as 330 meters, equivalent to a 110-level high building, which is the highest main tower of bridges all over China. Meanwhile, it is also the world highest main tower of roadway and railway cable stayed bridge. Seventy-three thousand cubic meters of concrete was placed, eleven thousand tons of steel bars were used so as to create the largest construction volume in the world. The General Engineer of Shanghai-Nantong Bridge project, Mr. Li Juntang said, “As the essential load-bearing structure of cable stayed bridge, the height of main tower increases with the increase of bridge span. In order to fulfill the navigation requirement of Yangtz River, the span of the bridge was designed as 1092 meters, thus the height of main tower soared up to 330 meters accordingly.”

Due to challenges induced by high main tower and massive construction, the main tower was designed as diamond-shaped steel-reinforced concrete structure to enhance transverse stiffness. The diamond-shaped structure and its mould system are more complicated than conventional ones, and the construction duration is also longer. In order to build such a complex and massive structure, the project technical team applied DOKA Hydraulic Sliding Formwork System exported from abroad, by proper arrangement large-scale tower cranes they managed to reduce construction duration and create the construction speed record in the super high air.

After the main tower, the construction came to the installation of steel girders and stay cables. The Shanghai-Nantong Bridge has combined function to provide the transportation for national railway, intercity railway and highway. The project will consume about 480 thousand tons of steel, equivalent to 12 “bird’s nest” Stadium. Concrete of 2.3 million cubic meters will be placed, equivalent to 8 National Grand Theater. The bridge was designed to resist 14th Level Typhoon, 8 Magnitude earthquake and impact by a ship of 100 thousand tons. The construction of the bridge represents the highest level of construction in China and even in the world, since the project is of such a big scale, such high difficulty and so many scientific innovations. Meanwhile, it created various records in the history of bridge construction in China and all over the world.

After the bridge being constructed and Shanghai-Nantong Railway put in service, not only Nantong City in Jiangsu Province will integrate itself into the “one-hour metropolitan circle around Shanghai” and coordinate the economic development of Yantz River Delta, but also it will make connections between East Shandong, North Jiangsu and Shanghai, South Jiangsu, East Zhejiang. The bridge will link the most efficient railway map in East China and provide conveniences for the Yangtz River Delta to make impact on the economy of Middle East Region of China.