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China Expressways, Highways: News & Discussions

The museum of modern bridges
Guizhou Province, Southwest China

Multiple bridges across Beipanjiang (North Winding River)
China's poorest province Guizhou rewrites world's bridge construction history in the 21st century

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No.1
Beipanjiang Bridge (2009)

G60 Shanghai-Kunming National Expressway
Qinglong, Guizhou, China
1,043 feet high / 318 meters high
2,087 foot span / 636 meter span

Quotes from http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beipanjiang_Bridge_Hukun
Upon its opening on November 27th, 2009, the 1,043 foot (318 mtr) high Beipanjiang highway bridge became the 3rd high crossing of the Beipanjiang River to debut in just 8 years. The first was the 902 foot high (275 mtr) Beipanjiang railway bridge which debuted in 2001 as the highest railway bridge in the world. The second was the Beipanjiang 2003 bridge on the Xingyi to Guiyang Highway which opened as the world’s highest bridge with a suspension span 1,200 feet (366 mtrs) above the river. The 3 bridges are spaced about 50 miles apart from each other. No other river on earth outside China has more than one high bridge over it - the Beipanjiang has 3! If that is not incredible enough, a fourth crossing is planned for a highway between Kunming and Bijie in the vicinity of the railway bridge. To keep the names from becoming confusing, I refer to this bridge entry as the Beipanjiang River 2009 bridge while the 2-lane highway bridge located to the south I refer to as the Beipanjiang River 2003 bridge.

The word Beipanjiang (pronounced Bay-Pan-Gee-Ang) translates into North Winding river with the word “bei” meaning north and “pan” meaning winding. Cutting a huge swath from the northwest end of Guizhou Province to the southwest where it becomes the Hongshui he river at the border of Guangxi Province, the Beipanjiang River traverses through some of China’s most spectacular mountain gorges. When China began to expand its road and railway system in the 1990s, the river became the biggest obstacle between the city of Guiyang and the city of Kunming. To make a direct connection between the two cities, engineers had to bring their 4-lane highway across two great rivers, the Balinghe and the Beipanjiang. Although the Balinghe suspension bridge gets all the attention since it is the higher and longer of the two, the highway bridge over the Beipanjiang is nearly its equal with a height of 1,080 feet (330 mtrs) - ranking it 8th among the world’s 10 highest bridges.

The design is fairly typical for a Chinese suspension bridge with a stiffened truss deck span of 2,086 feet (636 mtrs) strung between two H-frame concrete towers with no suspended back spans. The most unusual aspect of the bridge is the east tower which extends approximately 330 feet (100 mtrs) below the deck. With a total height of 525 feet (160 mtrs), the tower is almost equal in height to the Mackinac bridge in Michigan - America’s fifth tallest bridge structure.


A bridge on 2360km long G60 National Expressway (open in 2009)
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No.2
Beipanjiang Bridge Duge (2016)

2016 World's Highest Bridge (when it is finished at the end of 2016)

2935km G56 Hangzhou-Ruilin National Expressway

Dugexiang, Guizhou, China
1,854 feet high / 565 meters high
2,362 foot span / 720 meter span



Quotes from http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beipanjiang_Bridge_Duge

Toppling all previous spans for height, the new Beipanjiang Bridge Duge will open in 2016 as the first crossing to ever surpass the 500 meter height barrier as well as becoming the first cable stayed bridge to ever hold the title of The World’s Highest Bridge.

No other region on earth has as many high bridges as China’s remote Western Province of Guizhou and there is no waterway within its borders with a greater collection of super-high bridge spans than the mighty Beipan River. Translated as the North Winding River, the BeipanJiang flows on a North-South rift that divides the Western and Eastern halves of Guizhou. The vertical limestone cliffs drop so deep that much of the river is in shadow during the day. Spaced every 50 kilometers along its length are a collection of epic road and railway bridges that have pushed the boundaries of China’s bridge engineering community.

Due to be completed in 2016, the G56 expressway is the last of Guizhou’s great East-West routes that will allow easy access into nearby Yunnan Province across terrain that was previously inaccessible to normal cars and trucks. The entire 4-lane divided highway stretches an incredible 2,935 kilometers from the city of Hanghzou near Shanghai to the border of Burma near Tibet. The extreme geography along the G56 has produced not only the world’s highest bridge over the Beipanjiang River near Duge, Guizhou but also the World’s Highest Suspension Bridge several kilometers further west near Puli, Yunnan.

All of this high bridge insanity began in 2001 when the mighty beast of the Beipan River summoned the construction of the World’s Highest Railway Bridge some 275 meters above a boulder-strewn crevasse on the Shuibai Railway. Two years later that triumph was followed by the river’s first road bridge record when the Beipanjiang Bridge Huajiang opened in 2003 surpassing the 300 meter height threshold as well as becoming the first suspension bridge in the world to surpass the height of Colorado’s Royal Gorge bridge after a 74-year reign.

This was followed by a succession of bridges both high and super-high including the Beipanjiang Bridge Hukun on the G60 expressway, the Beipanjiang Bridge on the Shuipan expressway with the world’s longest span high-level beam bridge, the Beipanjiang Bridge Wang’an expressway and the Beipanjiang Bridge Zhenfeng.

But in 2016 the Beipan will deliver its two biggest high bridge gifts ever in the form of the Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Qinglong - the world’s highest “High-Speed” railway bridge at 295 meters and the colossal Beipanjiang Bridge Duge at 564 meters in height. Other engineering honors Duge can claim include having the second longest steel trussed cable stayed span and the tenth tallest bridge tower in the world at 269 meters.

Until the year 2000, the experience of traveling around Guizhou was a grueling and arduous one that often took days along a dangerous network of older, 2-lane national roads. Despite a land mass slightly smaller then Great Britain or the U.S. state of Washington this outdated infrastructure limited the kind of growth that had been underway in the Eastern Provinces where accessibility had been improving steadily and rapidly since the early 1990s.

The first hint of Guizhou’s high bridge aspirations came in 2001 when the Liuguanghe beam bridge opened as the World’s Highest Bridge on a 2-lane expressway between the capital city of Guiyang and the smaller county of Bijie in the Northwest corner of the Province. In the 15 years that followed, expressway construction went into full gear with four and now six-lane expressways connecting cities both large and small regardless of how difficult the mountain terrain may be. An old saying states that in Guizhou there are no three days without rain, no three acres without a mountain and no three coins in any pocket. They may have to amend that and add that there are no three kilometers of expressway without a high bridge!

Today the Province of Guizhou is home to more high bridges then every other country on earth combined. By 2020 Guizhou will have more then 250 bridges over 100 meters high as measured from the road or rail deck to the water. Compare that with Italy which has the world’s second greatest number of high bridges with only 40 spans exceeding 100 meters in height. Of the world’s 20 super-high spans that exceed 300 meters from deck to water, all are in China except for 3.





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No.3
Beipanjiang High-speed Railway Bridge Qinglong

World's highest HSR bridge (open in late 2016)

2066km Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Railway

Qinglong, Guizhou, China
968 feet high / 295 meters high
1,460 foot span / 445 meter span


750px-BeipanjiangQinglongAerialArch.jpg



The massive Beipanjiang River railway arch is not only the world's highest railway bridge at 283 meters if you exclude Najiehe which is over a reservoir, but is also the world's longest concrete arch ever built with a span of 445 meters. The crossing is the crown jewel of bridges on the high speed railway line connecting Guiyang and Kunming. Located north of Qinglong city, the Beipanjiang has always been Guizhou's second greatest river after the Wujiang.


The deformation of the arch ring increased gradually as the volume of arch ring concrete increased during the construction process. The maximum deflection was designed to be 294mm after pouring of the arch ring concrete was completed and 383mm after the additional dead load was placed. Because live load accounts for a small proportion of dead load, precamber of the arch ring is designed based on the deformation caused by dead load. At the arch crown, the precamber of 350mm is set, while the cambers of other parts of the arch ring are distributed by quadratic parabola. Under the standard railway live load, the maximum upward vertical deflection is 40.2mm which occurs at the quarter-span section and the maximum downward vertical deflection is 48.8mm which also occurs at the quarter-span section. Under the lateral wind load, the maximum lateral displacement is 52.8mm which occurs at the mid-span section.


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No.4
Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Shuibai (2001)

Fa’er Bouyei, Guizhou, China
902 feet high / 275 meters high
771 foot span / 235 meter span


Quotes from http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beipanjiang_Railway_Bridge_Shuibai

When it opened in 2001, the 902 foot (275 meter) high Beipanjiang River railway bridge became the highest arch bridge on earth, unseating the 23-year old record long held by West Virginia’s New River Gorge bridge as well as being the second highest bridge of any kind in the world. It also became the World’s Highest Railway bridge, toppling the quarter century record of the Mala Rijeka viaduct in Podgorica, Montenegro. In 2009, the Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Shuibai lost its highest arch title to another Chinese span, the 965 foot (294 mtr) high Zhijinghe road bridge while in 2016, the opening of the Najiehe Railway Bridge and the Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Qinglong pushed it further down in the overall ranking of high railway bridges.

750px-Beipanjiang2011Railway52.jpg
750px-BeipanjiangShuibaiTrainLonglens.jpg

@anant_s


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No.5
Beipanjiang Bridge Guanxing (2003)

World's Highest Bridge 2003-2005

Xingyi-Guizhou Highway (not expressway)
Xingbeizhen, Guizhou, China
1,200 feet high / 366 meters high
1,273 foot span / 388 meter span


750px-Beipanjiang2003View4.jpg


Quotes from http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beipanjiang_Bridge_Guanxing

The highest bridge in the world upon its opening in late 2003, the 1,200 foot (366 meter) high Beipanjiang Bridge Guanxing highway became the second Chinese span in just two years to take this honor. The first was 2001’s Liuguanghe bridge. In addition, the Beipanjiang became the first bridge to break the 1,000 foot and 300 meter height thresholds as well as the first suspension bridge in the world to surpass the height of Colorado’s Royal Gorge bridge after a 74-year reign. The bridge is also one of 4 Beipanjiang River crossings to have been among the world’s 10 highest. The first was the 902 foot high (275 meter) Beipanjiang Railway bridge which opened in 2001 and was the highest train bridge in the world until 2016 when it was surpassed by the Beipanjiang Qinglong and Najiehe Railway Bridges. The third bridge to cross high above the Beipanjiang opened in 2009 on the Guiyang to Kunming Highway with a suspension span 1,083 feet (330 meters) above the river. Then in 2016 the Beipanjiang Bridge Duge opened with a World Record deck height of 564 meters. While not in the 300+ meter super-high category as these Beipan crossings, there are several other high bridges that have been built over the Beipan river gorge including the the Beipanjiang Bridge on the Shuipan expressway with the world’s longest span high-level beam bridge, the Beipanjiang Bridge Wang’an expressway and the Beipanjiang Bridge Zhenfeng. Most of these bridges are spaced about 50 miles apart from each other. No other river on earth outside China has more than one or two high bridges over it - the Beipanjiang has 8 with more to come!

Despite its fall from the top spot among China’s highest spans, the Beipanjiang Bridge Guanxing is still one of the most vertigo inducing of all with cliffs that plummet into a void that seems to have no bottom. The cliff beneath the west side of the bridge is nearly vertical for 800 feet (244 meters). The Beipanjiang is also the world’s first “10 second bridge”. What, you may ask, is that? It is a bridge so high that an object falling from the deck will be in free fall for more than 10 seconds before hitting the water. The bridge is perfect for tourists with pedestrian friendly parking areas on both sides of the gorge as well as walkways along the edges of the span.


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There are also several other less marvellous bridges over this river.
Let's stop for a rest!

@anant_s @PaklovesTurkiye @Danish saleem @grey boy 2 @Gibbs @Götterdämmerung @waz @PARIKRAMA @Ankit Kumar 002 @Yizhi @Shotgunner51 @TaiShang @Stranagor @cirr @Keel @Jlaw @Place Of Space @FairAndUnbiased @zeronet @Raphael @sweetgrape @Edison Chen @Chinese Bamboo @Chinese-Dragon @cnleio @+4vsgorillas-Apebane @onebyone @yusheng @Kyle Sun @dy1022 @Beast @YoucanYouup @terranMarine @ahojunk @kuge@Economic superpower @Beidou2020 @cirr @JSCh @jkroo @Pangu @ChineseTiger1986 @powastick @onebyone @kankan326 @badguy2000 @TianyaTaiwan @ahtan_china @ChineseTiger1986 @powastick @empirefighter @hexagonsnow @xuxu1457 @sword1947 @tranquilium@55100864 @Sommer @HongWu002 @Speeder 2 @Dungeness @utp45 @StarCraft_ZT2 @Martian2 @Jguo @Arryn @rott @TheTruth @Dungeness @immortalsoul @beijingwalker @xunzi @Obambam @ahtan_china @bolo @bobsm @Abacin @Tom99 @Genesis @GS Zhou @djsjs @Daniel808 @Nan Yang @70U63 ]@CAPRICORN-88 @XiaoYaoZi @Hu Songshan @theniubt @LTE-TDD @faithfulguy @Bussard Ramjet @Tiqiu @Mista @grey boy 2 @litefire @Bussard Ramjet @Taygibay @Hu Songshan @Chinese-Dragon @Echo_419 @Rajaraja Chola @Gufi @Rasengan @UKBengali @CAPRICORN-88 @Godman et al
 
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Beautiful pictures!


HXD1?
Yes, powerful loco on mountainous railways

@AndrewJin , is self drive car rental available to foreign tourists in China? Is it advisable?
Not really advisable.
It will take several weeks for international tourists, only advisable for those working in China.
Plus, driving across China is exceedingly tiring, the distance from city to city in the West is huge.
High-speed railways are the most preferred transport method.



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Continued

The museum of modern bridges
Guizhou Province, Southwest China

屏幕快照 2016-07-20 18.22.25.png




The following videos are all about the expressway bridges in the Beipanjiang region, Western Guizhou Province
Some on the Beipanjiang, some over the other rivers.





 
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Driving in Central China
Encounter one of the most beautiful expressway bridges
Driving with PLA's military music:enjoy:

A small section of G65 Baotou-Maoming National Expressway
in Hunan Province, Central China

The amazing Aizhi Expressway Bridge on G65 Expressway

Quotes from http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Aizhai_Bridge


Aizhai Bridge 矮寨特大桥 (2012)
Jishou, Hunan, China
1,102 feet high / 336 meters high
3,858 foot span / 1,176 meter span

Aizhai is the world’s highest tunnel to tunnel bridge and the fourth suspension bridge in China to cross a valley so wide it seems to be connecting two mountain ranges. The first three were the Siduhe, Balinghe and Beipanjiang 2009 bridges. Of the world's 400 or so highest bridges, none has a main span as long as Aizhai with a tower to tower distance of 3,858 feet (1,176 mtrs). Located deep in the heart of China’s Hunan Province near the city of Jishou, the suspension bridge is the largest structure on the Jishou to Chadong expressway with a deck 1,102 feet (336 mtrs) above the DeHang Canyon.

The two tunnels on either side of the Aizhai bridge allowed the engineers to use the mountain top for the location of one of the towers, reducing its height to just 165 feet (50 mtrs) - unusually short for a bridge with a span nearly as long as the Golden Gate bridge at 3,858 feet (1176 mtrs). In addition to cost savings, the stubby support also allows the bridge to blend more naturally into its surroundings. The taller bridge tower is no less unique with side span cables that soar down the backside of a mountain, making first time visitors quizzical as to what exactly lies ahead. With most of the structure hidden from view, the bridge will come as a jaw-dropping surprise whether you enter the canyon from either tunnel. Due to a gap of approximately 328 feet (100 mtrs) between the last truss suspenders and the tops of the bridge towers, the engineers added some additional ground anchored suspenders to stabilize the two massive suspension cables and reduce any oscillations that could damage other components of the bridge. An overlook and visitors center will offer additional views of the broad valley.


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The inauguration of Aizhai Bridge was a historic moment for local villagers, in the minority-dominated Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Tujia.
750px-AizhaiTunnelCover.jpg

@anant_s @Danish saleem @Roybot @PaklovesTurkiye @Gibbs @Godman @Ankit Kumar 002 @PARIKRAMA @Echo_419 @ahojunk @terranMarine @Jlaw
 
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continued

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The Baotou–Maoming Expressway, commonly referred to as the Baomao Expressway(Chinese: 包茂高速公路) is an expressway that connects the cities of Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, and Maoming, Guangdong. When fully complete, it will be 3,017 km (1,875 mi) in length.

China expressway G65 Baotou-Maoming is one of the most beautiful expressway in the world. Total length more than 3000km long, it cross numerous desert, grassland, mountains, gorges, forests, rivers, villages, cities; from dry and cold Mongolia to moist and hot South China sea; also including many engineering marvels: two of them are the longest expressway tunnel——18km long Zhongnanshan tunnel and the most beautiful bridge——1176m span,336m high Aizhai bridge.


The location of Aizhai Bridge on G65 Expressway
and adjacent provincial capitals

屏幕快照 2016-07-21 14.43.30.png


屏幕快照 2016-07-21 14.42.50.png



Booming Tourism
Now, Aizhai Bridge is also a popular tourist site, a must-to-visit man-made wonder in western Hunan Province
Along with Fenghuang Ancient town, the UNESCO heritage site Zhangjiajie National Park and numeral national and cultural tourist sites, they witness the crazily booming tourism industry in Central China's Hunan Province.
450px-98AizhaiElevator&SkyByEric_copy.jpg
750px-AizhaiParkingAerial.jpg
750px-AizhaiPlazaAerial.jpg
750px-4AizhaiWirewalkersByChinaNews.jpg


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For more information about the other key project of G65 Expressway, 18km long Zhongnanshan Tunnel, which is in Northwest China's Shannxi Province,
pls refer to the following videos
Zhongnanshan Tunnel,
the longest mountainous expressway tunnel in the world

Although Lærdal Tunnel in Norway and the Yamate Tunnel in Japan are longer than Zhongnanshan tunnel, Lærdal Tunnel is a 2 lane common highway tunnel,Yamate Tunnel in fact is an underground way beneath Tokyo. For 4 lane expressway cross mountains, Zhongnanshan tunnel is the longest in the world with 18km long. China has more than 10000km 4 lane expressway tunnels, more than 2/3 of the world.
 
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Not really advisable.
It will take several weeks for international tourists, only advisable for those working in China.
Plus, driving across China is exceedingly tiring, the distance from city to city in the West is huge.
High-speed railways are the most preferred transport method.

That's a shame! Such beautiful roads, breath taking scenery. HSR is convenient but not as fun.
 
That's a shame! Such beautiful roads, breath taking scenery. HSR is convenient but not as fun.
Unfortunately that's the reality.
Plus, China especially outside the first tier cities and a couple of other cities by the sea, is really unfriendly to non-Chinese tourists. Imagine you are driving on the expressway, the only navigation app you can use is all in Chinese. And you are not allowed to stop anywhere on the expressway to take photos!

Driving from Thailand to China
2:05:30 entering China
2:20:53 entering G8511 Expressway
 
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And that is why China needs to open up.

China is open. Hence it is one of the largest tourist destinations. But opening up does not mean we speak/write in English for others to have convenient travel.

Tourists are advised to sign up with a tour company, like many tourists from China do when they travel overseas, and the tour guide will handle everything.

continued

View attachment 319371
The Baotou–Maoming Expressway, commonly referred to as the Baomao Expressway(Chinese: 包茂高速公路) is an expressway that connects the cities of Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, and Maoming, Guangdong. When fully complete, it will be 3,017 km (1,875 mi) in length.

China expressway G65 Baotou-Maoming is one of the most beautiful expressway in the world. Total length more than 3000km long, it cross numerous desert, grassland, mountains, gorges, forests, rivers, villages, cities; from dry and cold Mongolia to moist and hot South China sea; also including many engineering marvels: two of them are the longest expressway tunnel——18km long Zhongnanshan tunnel and the most beautiful bridge——1176m span,336m high Aizhai bridge.


The location of Aizhai Bridge on G65 Expressway
and adjacent provincial capitals

View attachment 319376

View attachment 319375


Booming Tourism
Now, Aizhai Bridge is also a popular tourist site, a must-to-visit man-made wonder in western Hunan Province
Along with Fenghuang Ancient town, the UNESCO heritage site Zhangjiajie National Park and numeral national and cultural tourist sites, they witness the crazily booming tourism industry in Central China's Hunan Province.
View attachment 319379 View attachment 319381 View attachment 319378 View attachment 319383

--------------------------

For more information about the other key project of G65 Expressway, 18km long Zhongnanshan Tunnel, which is in Northwest China's Shannxi Province,
pls refer to the following videos
Zhongnanshan Tunnel,
the longest mountainous expressway tunnel in the world

Although Lærdal Tunnel in Norway and the Yamate Tunnel in Japan are longer than Zhongnanshan tunnel, Lærdal Tunnel is a 2 lane common highway tunnel,Yamate Tunnel in fact is an underground way beneath Tokyo. For 4 lane expressway cross mountains, Zhongnanshan tunnel is the longest in the world with 18km long. China has more than 10000km 4 lane expressway tunnels, more than 2/3 of the world.

Breathtaking images!
 
Does anyone know what happened to the French couple who only had a couple of thousand Yuan with them but hitch hiked all their way to Chongqin. I heard this from the TV last week that they were so hungry on the road when they were pick up by one Chinese driver and were send to the Police for help.
 
@ahojunk Great thread again! Thank you for tagging me.

I have been traveling in China's interior extensively.
So far from my previous experiences, What amazes me most is the expressway network in Guizhou, the poorest province in Southwest China. I think better transportation is the key to poverty reduction.

View attachment 310822


This whole region is full of karst landforms and very dangerous for any infra project.
Chinese technicians and workers have done a great job so far.
More investment should be prioritised for projects in Guizhou and around.

More than half of world's craziest bridges are in Guizhou!
Most are expressway bridges or railway bridges.
View attachment 310825 View attachment 310823 View attachment 310824


Beipanjiang Bridge
The highest bridge in the world 2016
Finished in 2016
Part of the 3000km long G56 Hangzhou-Ruili National Expressway
View attachment 310826

What is the height? I think highest is this one.

bridge540.jpg
 
Does anyone know what happened to the French couple who only had a couple of thousand Yuan with them but hitch hiked all their way to Chongqin. I heard this from the TV last week that they were so hungry on the road when they were pick up by one Chinese driver and were send to the Police for help.
Any link?

What is the height? I think highest is this one.

bridge540.jpg

Here is the rank.
Since 2000, the highest bridge changes a lot.
http://highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_500_Highest_International_Bridges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges
 
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