On the morning of October 23rd, a groundbreaking engineering feat took place in Qichun County, Hubei Province, as the country’s first inverted continuous beam was successfully rotated at the No. 3 pier of the Changjiao Passage Bridge, which crosses the Jingjiu Railway. The T-shaped girder, weighing 9,000 tons and spanning 148 meters, was elegantly maneuvered into place, achieving a “graceful turn” in mid-air after a precise counterclockwise rotation of 47 degrees.
The Changjiao Passage Bridge is a critical component of the Shiguchong Green Building Material Base project in Qichun County, designed for long-distance transportation. What made this construction particularly notable is that it was the first in the country to employ the “upward curve, downward flat” inverted design method.
Given that the construction site is in close proximity to a busy railway line, ensuring the safety of train operations while facilitating the successful rotation of the 9,000-ton T-shaped girder posed a significant challenge. To tackle this, the project implemented a comprehensive railway engineering management system, creating a “Smart Information Management Platform” that integrated advanced technologies such as infrared intrusion detection, remote video monitoring, AI image recognition, and smart IoT systems. This approach enabled real-time data collection and analysis, ensuring stringent safety management throughout the construction process.
At 8:50 AM, the T-shaped girder began its rotation at a controlled speed of 1.1 degrees per minute. Technicians monitored the process through video surveillance, closely tracking the beam’s angular velocity, linear speed, trajectory, posture, and vertical vibration in real time. With precise instruments like electronic leveling devices and total stations, they maintained measurement accuracy within millimeters. The entire rotation process took just 50 minutes, executed smoothly and under control.
The successful rotation of the bridge’s girder marks the completion of the final piece of the puzzle for the Changjiao Passage in Qichun County. The T-shaped girder was overseen by the project management company of China Railway Wuhan Group and constructed by China Railway Fourth Bureau Group. Once completed, this project is expected to provide up to 70 million tons of high-quality green sand and gravel aggregates annually to the central and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, stimulating development across transportation, manufacturing, and financial services industries, and promoting organic connectivity between Qichun and urban agglomerations along the Yangtze River.
