On May 26, good news came from above the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Wuhan — the main towers on the north and south banks of the Hannan Yangtze River Bridge were successfully capped simultaneously, marking a key milestone breakthrough in the construction of Hubei Province's largest-span double-main-cable eight-lane suspension bridge, and laying a solid foundation for accelerating the formation of the Wuhan metropolitan area ring expressway.

　　According to reports, the Hannan Yangtze River Bridge is Hubei Province's 44th Yangtze River bridge and Wuhan's 13th Yangtze River crossing channel. It is listed as a key construction project in the "Yangtze River Trunk Crossing Channel Layout Plan (2020–2035)" and is a key controlling project of the G9906 Wuhan metropolitan area ring line of the national expressway network. The bridge is a double-tower single-span steel box girder suspension bridge with a main span of 1,600 meters, eight lanes in both directions, and a design speed of 120 km/h. The north bank is located in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (Hannan) District, and the south bank connects to Jiayu County, Xianning City. With a total length of 72.523 kilometers, it is a backbone cross-river channel serving the high-quality development of the Hubei Yangtze River Economic Belt and supporting the integrated development of the Wuhan metropolitan area. The north and south main towers capped in this operation are 230.5 meters and 228.5 meters high respectively; due to the design for terrain elevation differences, the tower tops are kept at a consistent elevation, presenting a magnificent sight facing each other across the river.

　　Since the start of construction, all participating units in the Hannan Yangtze River Bridge project have focused on technical challenges such as ultra-high main towers, ultra-long pile foundations, ultra-large caissons, and concrete temperature control and crack prevention, promoting improved quality and efficiency through intelligent construction plus refined management. During construction, advanced processes such as integral hoisting of prefabricated reinforcement, fully enclosed hydraulic climbing formwork, intelligent temperature-controlled curing, and integrated intelligent tensioning and circulating grouting were innovatively applied, achieving millimeter-level precision in reinforcement positioning, precisely controllable tower column alignment, and durable and reliable concrete quality. Science and technology have empowered the project to build a solid foundation for a century-quality project and successfully complete the key milestone of capping the main towers.

　　It is reported that after the main towers are fully capped, the bridge will officially move into superstructure construction, focusing on key processes such as catwalk erection, main cable strand traction, and steel box girder hoisting, steadily advancing toward the goal of completion and opening to traffic in 2028. After the bridge is completed, travel time from Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (Hannan) to Jiayu will be reduced from 1.5 hours to about 5 minutes, significantly addressing the region's cross-river transportation shortcomings, improving the national expressway network and the Yangtze River crossing channel system, helping to fully shape Wuhan's "1-hour commuting circle," better serving the integrated development of the Wuhan metropolitan area and the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and providing solid transportation support for Hubei to accelerate its development as a pioneer area in building a new national development pattern and to build a strategic fulcrum in the central region.

Source:Poster News