The spring scenery is infinitely beautiful, and it is the right time for vigorous work. The Shiziyang Channel project of Guangdong Communications Group has set off a new round of construction boom, and good news has once again come from the construction site. At 21:00 on February 27, as mechanical arms moved back and forth and the last truckload of concrete was poured into the formwork, the west anchorage of the Shiziyang Bridge was announced to have successfully completed bottom sealing. This is another major progress following the completion of bottom sealing construction for the east anchorage in early February.

The Shiziyang Channel is another super project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area after the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link. The project's controlling engineering work—the Shiziyang Bridge—adopts a double-deck steel truss suspension bridge with a main span of 2,180 meters, crossing the river in a single span, and is planned to be completed and opened to traffic in 2028. Once completed, it will create five world records for double-deck suspension bridges: main span length, main tower height, anchorage foundation, main cable scale, and number of lanes.

The anchorages of the Shiziyang Bridge are distributed on the east and west sides of the Pearl River and consist of the anchorage foundation and anchorage body. Among them, the west anchorage adopts a circular diaphragm wall with an outer diameter of 130 meters and a wall thickness of 1.5 meters, as well as a ring-shaped reinforced concrete inner lining support structure. It is currently the world's largest bridge anchorage among projects under construction and is being built by CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co., Ltd.

The west anchorage is a key load-bearing component of the Shiziyang Bridge, serving to anchor the entire bridge. Its foundation depth reaches 36 meters, and the earth and rock excavation volume reaches 500,000 cubic meters, placing extremely high demands on quality management, construction management, and organizational management.

The bottom sealing of the west anchorage this time was fully prepared. First, according to the drawings, the anchorage base was excavated to the corresponding design rock stratum and elevation, and the base surface was cleaned. Work was then carried out for blind ditch laying, base elevation measurement, and joint trench inspection. After ensuring that the construction conditions met the requirements, bottom sealing concrete pouring was then carried out.

During the construction process, the project relied on the integration of multiple technologies such as automated acquisition equipment, big data analysis, and the Internet of Things, and developed a digital intelligent twin platform for the anchorage to achieve intelligent early warning, eliminate hidden dangers in advance, safeguard the safe construction of the west anchorage, and help the project complete the excavation of the super-large and ultra-deep foundation pit with high quality.

At present, all work on the Shiziyang Channel is progressing smoothly. The main tower is undergoing pile cap construction, and bottom sealing has been completed for the east and west anchorages. The first segment of the steel shell tower of the Shiziyang Bridge will be shipped in March. Next, construction will enter the main tower column and anchorage core filling stages, with the main tower height planned to exceed 100 meters by the end of the year.

The Shiziyang Channel is another cross-river channel at the Pearl River estuary that Guangdong Province has promoted for planning and construction since the release of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Once completed, it will open up a new important channel for the integrated development of the east and west banks of the Pearl River estuary and is of great significance for promoting the integrated high-quality development of the Pearl River estuary in the Greater Bay Area and building the 100-kilometer Golden Inner Bay around the Pearl River estuary.