Traveling in China‘s Yunnan province will soon become easier with the world’s first single-tower, new record-breaking suspension bridge set to open next month.
1. Lvzhijiang Bridge
Stretching 798 meters over a river valley, the new Lvzhijiang Bridge is the longest and likely more beautiful single tower suspension bridge ever built, crossing a remote canyon in the central Yunnan Province. The distance from tower to mountain anchorage is 780 meters surpassing the previous single tower record holder, the Jinshajiang Hutiaoxia expressway bridge, spanning 766 meters.
The new bridge hangs above Lvzhijiang, which means “Green Juice River”, and extends beyond tunnels that emerge from steep mountain faces on each side of the valley.
With construction starting in 2019, the project took about three years to complete and it’s set to open to traffic by late April 2022. On 31 October 2021, China opened the new Lvzhijiang Bridge over the river Yangtze, which will now connect the district of Chongming in just an hour’s drive to booming Shanghai, paving the way for rapid development. The district alone has a surface area 50 percent bigger than Singapore.
On March 9, as the cable crane fixed the last piece of steel box girder on the sling accurately and stably, the Lvzhijiang Bridge of the Yuxi-Chuxiong Expressway in Yunnan undertaken by CREC was successfully closed. #bridge pic.twitter.com/S0xQQwF2t0
— China Railway Engineering Corporation (@CRECofficial) March 15, 2022
2. Industrial design
The new bridge development’s intricacy has already earned it acclaim as an industrial design wonder. The scenic view surrounding the huge concrete infrastructure and its imposing presence have granted Lvzhijiang Bridge a distinction as an engineering marvel.
The bridge is only held up by one tower and is supported at both ends by cables. There are no additional columns, giving it a dramatic, gravity-defying look. The progress development of the road project in China is considered the world’s first single-tower and single span connection stayed viaduct.
3. Connecting Yunnan to China
The bridge links neighboring Yuxi City and Yunnan’s Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture and will dramatically shorten the journey time. Not considered popular tourism destinations, both Yuxi City and Chuxiong have their particularities. The first is famous for tobacco production, and the latter, for its dinosaur museum. The new bridge connection will connect the two areas that are located right in the heart of Yunnan province to major cities like Kunming and Dali.
The new Lvzhijiang Bridge is yet another infrastructure project under the Belt and Road initiative carried out by China. In October 2021, the country launched a new high-speed China-Laos Railway.
