(I) From Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge to Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge

i. Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge: turning a chasm into a thoroughfare

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, which spans the Yangtze River in Wuhan, Hubei Province, between Snake Hill in Wuchang and Turtle Hill in Hanyang, is the first megaproject built after the founding of new China, noted as the “First Bridge of the Yangtze.”

In 1949, shortly after the founding of new China, Li Wenji and Mao Yisheng among other scientists and engineers submitted to the Central People’s Government a proposal to build a commemorative bridge in Wuhan, in which they suggested constructing the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge as “a memorial to the success of the new democratic revolution,” detailed the former four planning experiences and the reasons for failure to embark on the project, and elaborated on the possibility of China being able to build a massive bridge as well as relevant engineering details, budget, etc. The Central Government placed significant importance on the matter. The plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, held on September 21-30, 1949, adopted the Yangtze River bridge proposal. At the end of the same year, Li, Mao and other bridge experts received invitational calls to Beijing for discussions on the construction of the bridge.

In 1950, shortly after his taking the helm of national railway work, General Teng Daiyuan was instructed by the Central People’s Government to plan and prepare for construction of the Wuhan bridge and conduct preliminary exploratory surveys. In 1952, a bridge design office was set up, and a survey and drilling team was assembled, headed by Mei Yangchun, to obtain the first-hand data. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was taken as a national priority project on the agenda of China’s First Five-Year Plan for national economic development, for which top engineers, technicians and other specialists were assembled from across the country to form the Wuhan Great Bridge Engineering Bureau charged with overseeing the construction of the bridge.

On the selection of the bridge site, a succession of eight plans were made, each of which the experts studied carefully. All the plans had one thing in common: Taking advantage of the hills on both banks of the Yangtze River to shorten the approaches and embankments. On January 21, 1954, Zhou Enlai chaired the 203rd meeting of the Government Administration Council of the Central People’s Government, which heard reports by Teng Daiyuan among others on the preparations made for the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and which adopted upon discussions the Resolution on Constructing the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. The Government Administration Council appointed Peng Min as chief, Yang Zaitian and Cui Wenbing as deputy chiefs, and Party Secretary of Wuhan Wang Renzhong as political commissar of the Wuhan Great Bridge Engineering Bureau. The meeting also approved the time of completion for the railway in late 1958 and the roadway in late September 1959.

On February 3, 1955, Teng Daiyuan himself presided over a Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge Technical Advisory Committee meeting, at which the renowned bridge expert Mao Yisheng was appointed chairman of the committee. On September 1 of that year, construction of the bridge commenced under the auspices of the Party and the government and with the support of the whole nation.

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge opened to traffic in October 1957. With a total length of 1,670.4 meters, the bridge has a 35-meter-tall bridge tower at either end of it. It is a double-decked road-rail bridge of a steel and wood structure, the upper level being a roadway and the lower level being a double-track railway. It has eight piers and nine spans, each of which is 128 meters in length, passable to 10,000-tonnage deadweight ships. Apart from the seventh pier, all other piers were constructed by using the “massive tubular column drilling method,” a brand-new construction method pioneered by Chinese bridge builders which embodied their wisdom, skill, and daring and resolution in face of difficulties.

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is the first bridge to have been built on the Yangtze River after the founding of new China, a milestone in its development. The bridge is also the first bridge, and the first double-decked rail-and-road bridge across the Yangtze River in history of China, embodying the ingenuity and insight of the bridge designers and the great workmanship of the builders. General Teng Daiyuan wrote in his memoir: “I think that the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is not only economical but firm and solid, not only beautiful but quick and safe to pass. Its quality makes it usable for at least a hundred years.”

“A bridge will fly to span the north and south, turning a deep chasm into a thoroughfare.” The completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge shortened the time that a train took to cross the river to two minutes from formerly one hour of train ferrying. As of June 14, 2018, the bridge had daily traffic of more than 100,000 vehicles and over 300 trains, playing an irreplaceable role in national economic development. As the first ever bridge built over the Yangtze River, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge represents the first step that China has made towards building mega bridges, becoming the starting point of the world journey of “Chinese bridges.”

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge

ii. Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge: unprecedented in the world history of bridges

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, or the HZMB, a bridge-tunnel system linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao within China, represents the longest, the most expensive and the toughest sea-crossing bridge project in Chinese history of construction. Construction of the HZMB began on December 15, 2009, and it opened to traffic on October 23, 2018. Upon its completion, this bridge of the century, hailed as “Mount Everest” of the engineering world, immediately became the focus of worldwide attention. This mega project could be seen, whether in Chinese or world history of bridge construction, as unprecedented. The HZMB links the world’s most vibrant economic areas together and has far-reaching importance to the economic and social integration of Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai.

The HZMB was constructed with a cost of more than RMB72 billion, implying the importance China placed on this grand project. Spanning the Lingding Channel to connect Hong Kong to the east with Zhuhai and Macao to the west, with a total length of 55 km, the HZMB is the first large sea-crossing transportation project to have been built under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework through cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, funded jointly by the central government and the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The main part of the HZMB, the “bridge-tunnel in the sea,” is 35.578 km long, about nine times the length of the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, and the amount of steel used for the project could be enough to build 60 Eiffel Towers. “The longest sea-crossing bridge,” “the longest undersea tunnel,” “the world’s deepest and most technically demanding immersed tube tunnel,” “the world’s first quick land reclamation technology involving a row of circular steel cells pile-driven into the mud”... these descriptions about the HZMB underline not only the glorious aspects of this mega project but the difficulties and complexities involved in building it. The most stunning part of the HZMB is not the towering body of the bridge as imagined by many people, but the 6.7 km-long undersea tunnel consisting of 33 deeply immersed tubes. That was the most complex and the most difficult part of the construction of the bridge because the undersea tunnel in the world before then was merely three kilometers in the longest. A Dutch company offered at the time to install the tubes for RMB1.5 billion, which the Chinese engineers rejected. “Only by taking a road of independent research and development can we possess core technology and overcome difficulties.” The complex seabed structure, the harsh natural environment and the big length of sea crossing meant that the engineers had to challenge the limits of bridge construction over the sea. Every typhoon, huge wave or earthquake in the Lingding Channel, or even erosion by seawater, could be a fatal threat to the bridge. All technical difficulties were finally solved by the Chinese engineers independently, and it took four years to link all immersed tubes together. The Chinese engineers also proved with this outstanding project the wisdom and might of China.

The bridges from the directions of Macao and Zhuhai join not long away from their respective ports to extend on in the direction of Hong Kong. The part from Hong Kong runs in the direction of the mainland, but in the middle of the Lingding Channel, it doesn’t join the part of the HZMB from the opposite direction above the water surface but through two artificial islands between which runs an undersea tunnel. Why was this undersea tunnel built instead of a viaduct like the rest of the entire bridge? There are two reasons for the design. Firstly, the Lingding Channel between Hong Kong and the mainland is quite a busy shipping route, seeing daily passage of more than 4,000 ships; it currently allows ships with a tonnage of 100,000 to navigate, and it is not hard in the future to make it a waterway for 300,000-tonnage ships. If a bridge were built in this section, the bridge, in order not to affect the passage of ships, must be at least 80 m above the water surface so that the bridge towers must be more than 200 m tall. Apart from difficulties in constructing such bridge towers, such structures are not allowed to exist around airports in Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong’s airport safety requirements, no buildings taller than 88 m are allowed to stand on aircraft routes, not to mention bridge towers more than 200 m in height. It thus followed naturally that the only option was to build an undersea tunnel. Another important reason for the decision to build the tunnel is related to the “water-hindering rate.” So far as this section is concerned, once the water-hindering rate exceeds 10%, mud and sand carried by flowing water tend to accumulate and finally silt up the shipping route. The Lingding Channel is just a typical area of weak ocean currents where sea water flows slowly, and if a traditional long bridge were built here, their tiers would be certain to stop part of mud and sand from flowing through and in the course of time cause big troubles to the passage of ships. Therefore, a bridge-tunnel combination was chosen for the HZMB, making it beautiful, safe and reliable and effectively resolving the problem of sea and air transportation.

HongKong—Zhuhai—MacaoBridge

It was a brand-new major task, under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to together build a crucial sea-crossing transportation project for the first time. At the central level, the State Council made the decision to set up the “HZMB Work Group,” led by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), to conduct coordination and assist to address issues about port establishment, investment and financing arrangement, navigation and anchorage, and protection of Chinese white dolphins. Considering that the HZMB was to be built and managed by the three regions, and given current laws and regulations, a decision-making mechanism and an operational management platform were established for the project, with the HZMB Authority being in charge. According to Zhu Yongling, Director of the HZMB Authority, the model of “joint building and management” by the three regions was gradually formed and improved in the course of construction. When it was decided in 2003 to build the HZMB, everyone had a shared vision, but none has an idea of how and when to build it and what its purpose was. In the five years that followed, well over a dozen combination plans were made, and more than 150 topics were discussed, including, among other complex issues on the main part of the HZMB, what investment and financing modes to adopt, how much each of the three sides was expected to invest, as well as laws, procedures, technologies, and management involved in the project given the cross-border and collaborative nature of it.

The HZMB opened to traffic on October 23, 2018, making Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao a “one-hour living circle.” Driving from Hong Kong to Zhuhai, one now no longer needs to take the Humen Pearl River Bridge, and when driving at 100 km/h, it takes one 45 min, a drastic decrease from the previous more than 3 hours. Hong Kong, a city of over 7 million people on a 1,100-square-kilometer territory, is noted as the most vibrant place on the Asian continent for its international finance, import and export, and tourism. Zhuhai, a fishing village-turned rising city, is hailed as the most livable coastal city in China. Macao, with a population of 400,000 living on a land of 21 square kilometers, is one of the most densely populated places in the world. With the HZMB linking them together, Hong Kong is seeing a greater space of development, Zhuhai can grow rapidly thanks to the economic advantage of Hong Kong, and Macao will also have greater access to tourism resources. The HZMB, under the country’s opening-up strategy, enables Hong Kong to play a greater role as a junction in the Belt and Road Initiative and improve the comprehensive technological innovation capacity of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

From the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge to the HZMB, Chinese engineers have created one after another engineering miracle by virtue of technology and their courage. Such megaprojects, from their construction to completion, have shown to the world the might of China and led Chinese people worldwide to keep forging ahead.

Link　Amazing “Chinese Bridges”

The Sutong Yangtze River Bridge, which was opened to traffic in 2008, is a cable-stayed bridge whose main span is 1,088 meters long. It is the first cable-stayed bridge with a length of more than 1,000 meters to have ever been constructed in the history of bridge construction.

Completed in 2009, the Chaotianmen Bridge that spans the Yangtze River in Chongqing is a three-span through arch bridge with a continuous steel truss, its main span being 552 meters in length.

The Dashengguan Yangtze River Bridge in Nanjing, which opened to traffic in January 2011, is the first six-track railroad bridge.

A part of the Hangzhou–Ruili Expressway on the border between the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, the Beipanjiang Bridge Duge was completed in 2016, with a vertical height of 565 meters from the bridge floor to the bottom of the valley, making it the highest bridge in the world.