A key river bridge in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, built by China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CREC4) in helping construct a massive water diversion project between the Yangtze and the Huaihe rivers, has been opened to public three months ahead of schedule.
Jinzhai South Road Bridge, one of the key undertakings for the Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion project — the second north-south waterway in China running over 1,000 kilometers after the existing Beijing-Hangzhou Canal zigzagging some 1,797 kilometers, was opened for traffic at 10:00 am on July 20, 2023. The water diversion project, which started its construction on Dec 29, 2016, is expected to cost some 91.27 billion yuan ($13.2 billion).
Jinzhai South Road Bridge is a single-tower cable-stayed bridge, with the tower having a double A-shaped structure, divided into 21 sections. The main tower of the bridge, which spans the Paihe River, rises as high as 112 meters — a height of roughly 40 stories of a high-rise, and is now the highest tower in Hefei.
The whole bridge project consists of the main bridge, the approach bridge traversing Jianghuai Avenue, two ramps, two auxiliary roads on Qingnian Road, a non-motorized vehicle ramp bridge, as well as related ground road drainage ancillary works covered by the whole bridge. Previously, the old river bridge was dismantled on March 22, 2021 and started its official construction in the same month.
With the opening of the Jinzhai South Road Bridge, all the eight civil-engineering bridges in the Heixi County region for the the Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion project have been put into operation, largely easing the traffic and offering convenience for the local residents.
The Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion project will cover 12 of Anhui’s 16 prefecture-level cities, and two of Henan’s 17 prefecture-level cities, benefiting some 50 million people living in these 14 cities of the two neighboring provinces.
The project is a large-scale undertaking aiming to support the urban and rural water supply for the 14 cities, as well as to develop shipping between the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers. While the Yangtze is China’s longest, the Huaihe, originating in Henan, flows eastward through Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces before emptying itself into the Yangtze at Sanjiangying after running for 1,000 kilometers.
Jinzhai South Road Bridge is one of the three river bridges CREC4 undertakes for the Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion project. The other two bridges are the Qinglong (Blue Dragon) River Bridge and the Yulan (Magnolia) Avenue Bridge, all located in Hefei and traversing the Paihe River.
Earlier, the Yulan (Magnolia) Avenue Bridge opened to traffic on July 28, 2022. The undertaking extends for 1,340 meters, including 779 meters for the bridge itself. The total length of the Qinglong River Bridge is 1,250 meters, among which the bridge itself is 814 meters long.
As one of the country’s 172 major water-conservancy undertakings, the water diversion project is dubbed the “No 1 Project” for Anhui’s infrastructure construction and CREC4 is doing its utmost bound in building it.
From south to north, the project is divided into three sections: water diversion from the Yangtze to Chaohu Lake in central Anhui, canal link between the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers and northward water transmission.
The total length of the water transmission line is 723 kilometers (of which 587.4 kilometers are in Anhui), including 88.7 kilometers of newly-dug canals, 311.6-kilometer routes from existing rivers and lakes, 215.6 kilometers of dredging and excavation routes, and pressure pipelines at 107.1 km.
The estimated investment of the Anhui section, jointly approved by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Transport, stands at about 87.5 billion yuan.
It has been learned that in 2023, the Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion can be opened to water diversion and navigation across the board, sending water from the Yangtze to northern Anhui and eastern Henan.