The Yangluo Yangtze River Bridge () is a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

over the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. With a main span of , at its opening it was tied with the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

as the ninth

longest suspension bridge in the world The world's longest suspension bridges are listed according to the length of their main span (i.e. the length of suspended roadway between the bridge's towers). The length of main span is the most common method of comparing the sizes of suspen ...

. The bridge carries the

G70 Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway The Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway (), designated as G70 and commonly referred to as the Fuyin Expressway () is an expressway that connects the cities of Fuzhou, Fujian, China, and Yinchuan, Ningxia. It is in length. The expressway was completed wi ...

and G4201 Wuhan Ring Expressway over the

and provides easy access to both sides of the river as part of a larger plan to promote development in the eastern portion of the city. Construction on the bridge began on November 4, 2003, and it opened to traffic on December 26, 2007.

History

The Yangluo Bridge was the fourth bridge constructed over the Yangtze in

. The first was the

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge The Wuhan Yangtze Great Bridge (), commonly known as Wuhan First Yangtze Bridge, is a double-deck road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, in Central China. At its completion in 1957, the bridge was the easternmost crossing of t ...

, known locally as the ''First Bridge'', built in 1957. This remained the only land link across the river for the next four decades and it became increasingly congested as the city grew. To alleviate the crowding on the bridge and promote further development in the city, Wuhan's government began an ambitious program in the early 1990s to upgrade the city's infrastructure by building new bridges and expressways around the city. Two further road crossings near the centre of the city, the

Second Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge The Second Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge (, ''Wuhan Changjiang Er Qiao'') is a bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. It is located northeast (downstream) of the historic central area of the city's Hankou District and is the ...

and the Baishazhou Bridge, were completed in 1995 and 2000 respectively. The Yangluo Bridge is located about downstream from these bridges. Together with the 10 km of new expressway constructed concurrently the bridge was the final major portion of the G4201 Wuhan Ring Expressway.

Design

The bridge was designed by the

China Communications Construction Company China Communications Construction Company, Ltd. (CCCC) is a majority state-owned, publicly traded, multinational engineering and construction company primarily engaged in the design, construction and operation of infrastructure assets, including ...

and built with assistance from

Dorman Long Dorman Long & Co was a UK steel producer, later diversifying into bridge building. It was once listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Arthur Dorman and Albert de Lande Long when they acquired ''West Marsh ...

, a UK-based heavy-lift construction contractor. It has a total length of with a main span of and approach spans of and on the north and south banks respectively. The bridge's deck is made of prefabricated concrete sections with an epoxy asphalt roadbed. It includes a 3-metre (9.8 ft) thick steel brace structure with girders at 14 metre intervals under the main deck to stiffen the bridge against the wind. The two main cables that support the deck are in diameter and each consists of 19,558 5.35 mm steel wires arranged in 154 strands. The portion of the cables over the shorter northern approach span include an additional eight strands to withstand the greater force exerted on them because of the smaller ratio in relation to the length of the main span. The north and south support towers for the main cables are and tall respectively and constructed of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

with two

prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...

x-braces on each tower to provide lateral stiffening. Coincidentally, the bridge's main span of is exactly the same length as the famous

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that opened 70 years prior. WuhanYangluoYangtzeBridgePanorama

References

External links

Aerial photo of the bridge
{{Authority control Suspension bridges in China Bridges in Wuhan Bridges completed in 2007 Bridges over the Yangtze River

History

Design

See also

References

External links