Ezhou Airport Expressway Phase II Project Smart Transformation: 26,000-ton Giant Precisely Crosses Wujiu Railway

This article is reproduced from: Hubei Daily

On March 26, a 26,000-ton highway rotating bridge rotated 61.1 degrees clockwise, crossing the busy national trunk railway - the Wujiu Railway. (Shi Yong, Zhang Cheng, Wang Ke - photo)

At 14:35 on March 26, in Haidiqiao Town, Daye City, after a splendid “turn” of 61.1 degrees lasting 75 minutes, the rotating bridge of the second phase of the Ezhou Airport Expressway successfully crossed the Wujiu Railway. Once this expressway is completed and opened to traffic, it will take only about 20 minutes to drive from Daye to Ezhou Huahu International Airport.

The second phase of the Ezhou Airport Expressway is the second smart expressway in Hubei Province. This rotating bridge was invested and built by Hubei Jiaotou Group and constructed by China Railway 11th Bureau. It is a key control project along the entire route. The bridge is 150 meters long, 38.7 meters wide, and has a total rotating weight of 26,000 tons, equivalent to the weight of 20,000 small cars.

The bridge spans the busy existing Wujiu Railway, with the bottom of the bridge only 1.6 meters away from the railway contact network. To ensure the safety of railway operations, the bridge was constructed on the side parallel to the existing railway, and a giant spherical hinge with a diameter of 4.7 meters below the pier was used to complete the rotation.

Before the rotation, the project team studied the wind resistance stability of the bridge, the key structures of the rotation system, and the stability during rotation. They monitored the rotation in real-time through precise weighing, counterbalancing, and tracking measurement technologies to ensure the entire process was controllable.

At 13:20, two 600-ton continuous tension jacks were activated, slowly pulling the bridge pier to rotate. Under the precise control of the technicians, the bridge rotated steadily at a rate of approximately 1.15 degrees per minute, the entire process ticking away like a second hand. On the large screen, information technology such as monitoring, BIM modeling, and other digital technologies presented the rotation speed, spatial position, and more in real-time. After 75 minutes, the bridge aligned perfectly with the existing bridge, achieving a “millimeter-level” precise connection. (Lin Jing, Tang Xuan, Sun Zhen, Deng Tingting)