Builders from China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CREC4) have successfully cast the first simple-supported box girder for an intercity railway linking two key prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province in East China.
The 76-kilometer Chaohu-Maanshan high-speed railway, starting its construction on October 28, 2019, is scheduled to start operation in 2026. Maanshan, a prefecture-level city sitting on both banks of the Yangtze, the country’s longest river, borders the provincial capital of Hefei on the west. Chaohu is a county-level city under Hefei.
CREC4 builders cast the 49.2-meter-long simple-supported box girder for the whole intercity railway on July 21, 2023 on the approach bridge on the side of Dangtu County under Maanshan. The approach bridge is located between the main embankment and the sub embankment on the Maanshan bank of the Yangtze River. The bridge, built within the Yangtze River flood discharge area, will need a total of 25 cast-in-place simple-supported box girders for the railway and four cast-on-site continuous beams for the highway. The first span of 49.2-meter cast-in-place simple-supported box girder is reserved for the Chaohu-Maanshan high-speed railway.
Starting from Chaohu East Railway Station, the Chaohu-Maanshan HSR will extend eastward through Hanshan County, Hexian County, Zhengpu Port New Area, Dangtu County, Maanshan’s Economic Development Zone, Yushan District and Huashan District, before ending at Maanshan East Station. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour for the trains, the HSR will have five stations, including Chaohu East (existing), Hanshan, Zhengpu Port, Maanshan South and Maanshan East (existing).
Upon operational, the HSR will add a new and fast link to both sides of the Yangtze River, marking great significance in connecting the Hefei metropolitan area and the Nanjing metropolitan area in neighboring Jiangsu Province, and boosting the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region as well as the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.