CCCC completes main towers for Wenzhou North Estuary Bridge

CCCC Second Harbour Engineering Co has completed concrete pouring for No 6 main tower of the new North Estuary Bridge of Wenzhou Bridge on the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Expressway expansion project in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province. Both main towers of the cable-stayed bridge are now topped out, allowing girder and stay-cable installation to proceed.

The new twin-tower cable-stayed bridge runs parallel to the old Wenzhou Bridge, which opened in 1998, with a minimum pier clearance of 5.4 meters. Its H-shaped reinforced-concrete towers are 97.8 meters high, with spans of 135 meters + 270 meters + 135 meters. The towers used an intelligent hydraulic climbing formwork system and achieved millimeter-level alignment, replacing the old bridge's flip formwork. Construction addressed water depth over 20 meters, currents near 4 meters per second, tidal ranges of about 7 meters, and soft silt over 30 meters thick.

In parallel, crews are replacing all 128 stay cables on the old bridge, China's first full stay-cable replacement for an expressway cable-stayed bridge. The completed crossing will provide eight lanes, with northbound traffic on the new bridge and southbound traffic on the old bridge, reducing cross-Oujiang congestion.

The No 6 main tower of the North Estuary Bridge is completed. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The No 6 main tower of the North Estuary Bridge is completed. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]