The first steel girder for the major structure of the Jinhai Avenue Bridge, which will bear both the Zhuhai Airport Urban Rail Transit line and a highway, will be hoisted before Spring Festival.

The girder is 49.6 m (162 ft) wide and 46 m (150 ft) long and has a surface area of 2,400 sqm (.6 acre) -- equivalent to 5.5 standard basketball courts. It will be lifted by a 3,600-ton vessel from Pingtan, Fujian Province.

East approach bridge [Photo by Zhong Fan & Chen Xinnian / Guanhai App]

As of Dec 20, six concrete piers of the main bridge had been completed, while the remaining two are 90 percent finalized. In addition, the east approach bridge has had the first arch ribs hoisted in place at the continuous girder. The installation of a steel tube tied-arch bridge will be completed and the 1.3-km (1,422 yd) hanging cast-in-place beam will be connected end-to-end by January, according to a project manager.

The first highway-railway structure in the Pearl River estuary, the Jinhai Avenue Bridge is 11.2 km (7 miles) long from the Jingwan Tunnel on southern Hengqin Island to the Sanzao Tunnel beneath East Airport Road (S727). It comprises east and west approach bridges, a main structure across the Modaomen Waterway, and the Hezhou Island, Baiteng River, and Sanzao sections.

The 1,369-m (1,497-yd) highway-railway dual-use bridge across Modaomen Waterway is being built by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group. It will form a significant part of the Zhuhai Airport Urban Rail Transit Phase II connecting Gongbei with Zhuhai (Jinwan) Airport, as will a 360-m (394-yd) continuous-beam steel tube arch bridge with separate highway and railway tracks under construction by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group.