Xinhua News Agency, Guiyang, January 17th Title: Climb the bridge over the "earth crack" and feel that "horizontal and vertical are the first"

Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiang Dingjie

On January 17th, the Guizhou Huajiang Canyon Bridge was successfully merged. The bridge is built on the Huajiang Grand Canyon, known as the "Earth Crack", with a total length of 2,890 meters, a span of 1,420 meters, and a height of 625 meters from the bridge deck to the water surface. It is a real "horizontal and vertical".

On that day, the reporter followed the "cat road" built by the builder and climbed to the highest point of the bridge, which was nearly 800 meters above the water surface. The strong wind whistled, the "cat road" swayed, stepped on the hollowed-out steel wire mesh, and his legs could not stop trembling. The reporter felt the decisiveness of building bridges and roads for people's livelihood and the courage of builders to pursue excellence without avoiding difficulties.

There are more than 30,000 bridges in Guizhou, which are veritable "Bridge Museum", which has achieved full coverage of various types of suspension cables, cable laminated, arched, and beam-type bridges, creating dozens of "world's firsts". Nearly half of the world's top 100 high bridges are in Guizhou.

Since construction started in January 2022, every progress of the Huajiang Canyon Bridge has attracted much attention.

Instantaneous winds up to level 14, large-volume concrete pouring of more than 400,000 cubic meters, steel truss hoisting with a total weight of more than 20,000 tons... In the face of a series of unprecedented difficulties, it is no surprise that pile foundations are driven on cliffs.

In the middle of the "cat path" about 4 meters wide, there is a main cable that a single person can't even hold his hands even if he stretches out his hands. It consists of 19,747 special steel wires with a diameter of 5.7 mm. The remaining sides and lower parts are made of wire mesh as guardrails and bottom plates.

When the reporter was careful and dared to move gently, the passing high-altitude workers stamped their feet a few times and jokingly said, "Look, it's absolutely safe, don't be nervous!"

The high-altitude workers Wang Zhongjian said that when setting up the main cable, they were like "Spider-Man", and they had to travel back and forth on the "Cat Road" every day, sometimes even trotting all the way. If you walk too much behind, you won’t be afraid of heights.

"We do a good job in resisting wind, so let's go boldly!" Wang Songyu, deputy manager of the Lu'an Expressway 8th standard project of the construction unit Guizhou Bridge Construction Group Co., Ltd., said that long before the construction, the team jointly carried out wind tunnel experiments with universities and found the best structural form and wind resistance measures.

What is built is a bridge, and what is tempered is technology. Smart cables are implanted into the main cable, and Beidou system is introduced into the lifting... The application of a series of scientific and technological achievements has made the bridge completely designed and constructed by the Chinese people and used domestic building materials.

"In terms of mountain bridge construction, it should be said that China is a leading position in the world." said Wu Chaoming, chief engineer of the Third Branch of Guizhou Bridge Construction Group Co., Ltd.

At present, the overall construction progress of the Huajiang Canyon Bridge has reached 94%, and it is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in the second half of this year.

In the river valley below the Huajiang Canyon Bridge, in Huajiang Village, Pingjie Township, Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province, 67-year-old villager Liang Shaoqing looks up to see the progress of the bridge construction almost every day.

The "Little Flower River Farmhouse" he opened is looking forward to the "landmark effect" of relying on the world's tallest bridge to explode again. "After the bridge is repaired, there will naturally be a lot of people. When there is business, the children who work outside will naturally come back." Liang Shaoqing calculated.

The bridge is a symbol of crossing obstacles and connecting hope. It is no longer a simple bridge that satisfies the passage!

The sky chassis builds a flying rainbow, an amazing Chinese bridge. (End)