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Skybridge Built By China Wins Engineering Award. Meet The Pingtang Bridge, A Skybridge That Surpasses The Mountains Of Guizhou.
At over 330 m high, a giant of concrete and steel that crosses above one of China’s main rivers has drawn attention not only from the inhabitants of Guizhou province but from people all over the world. This is the Pingtang bridge, a skybridge built by China that goes far beyond simplifying transport in the region.
The project of the skybridge built by China confirms the country’s vocation for mega constructions with innovative technological solutions and a surprising design. In fact, it is no coincidence that the Pingtang Bridge was recognized with three of the world’s top Civil Engineering awards.
Inaugurated in December 2019, the bridge was named after the county where it is located: Pingtang, Guizhou province, over 2100 km from the Chinese capital Beijing. The region features a beautiful mountainous landscape filled with valleys, rivers, and forests.
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Understand How The Need For The Pingtang Bridge Arose
In addition to a rich diversity of flora and fauna, this setting houses one of the most important road projects in Southern China, the Guizhou Expressway, which totaled no less than 8,331 km in length by 2022.
One of the most memorable stretches of the Expressway is precisely the Pingtang bridge. Located between kilometers 32 and 35 of the Pingtang-Luodian section of the Expressway, the skybridge built by China measures 2135 m in length.
Although it may seem like a relatively modest number, it is worth highlighting that the structure has a maximum height of 332 m, making it the third highest bridge in the world, and as impressive as these dimensions are the stories and motivations behind the construction of this Mega Project.
Skybridge Built By China Receives Investment Of 1.5 Billion Yuans
In the case of Pingtang, the main motivation for the construction was to improve the transportation infrastructure in the region in order to connect isolated areas and facilitate access to services and markets for local communities. The project for the skybridge built by China was updated in 2014 and two years later, in 2016, the design was approved.
In financial terms, the funds for construction were secured through special funds from the Guizhou Provincial Department of Transportation, which accounted for 35% of the investment, in addition to national bank loans, which accounted for the remaining 65%.
The total investment for the Pingtang bridge project was 1.5 billion yuans, equivalent to 210 million dollars at the time. With approval and budget secured, construction of the skybridge built by China began in April 2016 with an estimated completion time of 46 months. However, Chinese excellence in civil construction not only ensured timely delivery but also resulted in one of the most amazing bridge projects on the planet.
The Construction Of The Pingtang Bridge
Constructed between 2016 and 2019, the Pingtang is a 2,135 m long bridge, comprising six lanes with a maximum speed of 80 km/h. There are two spans of 550 m in length and three towers with different heights reaching up to the top. While the outer ones measure 320 and 298 m, the central one reaches 332 m.
Initially, plans for the construction of a bridge to cross the Caodu River revolved around schemes for suspended bridges with a main span of approximately 1400 m. However, unlike most long river valleys in Guizhou, the terrain in the center of the Caodu Valley is considerably elevated from the river level to the small ridge or hill halfway between the high cliffs of the gorge.
The main beam features a steel structure with a width of 30.2 m, a height of 2.98 m, in addition to a concrete slab with a thickness of 28 cm. The detailed structure of the central pillar differs from that of the side pillars, consisting of 22 pairs of parallel steel cables arranged on each side along the length of the bridge.
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