At 11:28 on July 14, the North Main Tower of Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge, the world's largest four-main-span suspension bridge, was capped with the final concrete placement. At this point, the main towers on both sides of the bridge were completely capped, and the construction phase of the main cables was about to begin.
Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge serves as an important supporting project of Ezhou Huahu International Airport, the first professional cargo hub airport in Asia, invested by Hubei Transportation Investment Group Co.,Ltd and constructed by China Railway Bridge Bureau Group Co.,Ltd. The bridge is located 6.5 kilometers downstream of the Ezhou-Huangzhou Yangtze River Bridge, spanning Huangzhou District of Huanggang City and Yanji Town of Ezhou City, and is an important part of the “Ezhou-Huangzhou Second River-crossing Passage”. Due to its close proximity to Ezhou Huahu Airport, the bridge is designed to have a single span of 1,860 m across the river, taking into account factors such as limited tower height, channel demand, ecological red line and geological conditions of the bridge location, the upper level is designed as an expressway and the lower level is an urban expressway.
Li luping, Chief Engineer of Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge Project Department of China Railway Bridge Administration, said that the Ezhou Yangtze River bridge is only 5 kilometers away from Ezhou Huahu International Airport. Due to the air height limit, the bridge tower is only designed to be 195 meters, which is more than 60 meters lower than the bridge towers of general suspension bridges of the same span. With a large span and a relatively low main tower, this requires that the tower columns must be thick enough to withstand huge pressure. The main tower on the north bank of the bridge has an ultra-thick wall structure and is designed with an octagonal outer cavity and a circular inner cavity. The section wall thickness of the standard section of the main tower is at least 3.2 meters and as much as 4.25 meters, which is the largest wall thickness among all concrete bridge towers in China.
As an important cross-river channel of the three-dimensional transportation system in eastern Hubei, after the completion of the Ezhou Yangtze River Bridge, it only takes 15 minutes to drive from Huanggang to Ezhou Huahu International Airport. It is of great significance for improving the expressway network and river-crossing passage layout in Hubei Province and strengthening the integrated development of Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang and Huangshi.