The incredible new bridge set to be world's highest at over 2,000ft
This incredible new bridge with a designed height of over 2,000 feet - or 625 metres - is set to be the highest in the world when it is completed.
This incredible new bridge with a designed height of 2,051 feet - or 625 metres - between the bridge deck and the Beipanjiang River below is set to be the highest in the world when it is completed and is a marvel of modern engineering.
This river is the only waterway in the world to now have three successive world’s highest bridge records.
The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in the Guizhou Province in southwestern China began construction in 2021 and is set for completion in June 2025, according to a press conference held in December last year.
In October 2023, the last main tower was completed, which took over 670 days to progress from the construction of the pile foundation to the capping of the main towers, according to its project manager, Wang Chaoguo, said the Global Times.
At 2,890 metres long, Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge’s longest span stretches 1,420 metres.
It will form part of the expressway linking the Liuzhi special district of Liupanshui City to the Anlong County of Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qianxinan in the Guizhou Province.
It will significantly reduce the crossing time of the canyon from 70 minutes to just one, according to Shine. It will also help boost local social and economic development and rural revitalisation, as well as tourism.
Distinctive challenges were faced in the design and construction of the bridge, including the fact that it is being built in a plateau region which has intense atmospheric temperature differences between day and night, leading to the likelihood of severe convective weather and consistent valley winds throughout the year, according to Alimak.
In May, pictures showed the deputy project manager, Wang Songyu, climbing onto the catwalk at least once a day to check on the supporting conditions of the cables, at a height of about two Eiffel Towers.
The estimated cost of the project remains elusive and does not appear to have been publicly disclosed.
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The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge (under construction), set to be the world's highest bridge, is expected to be completed by June 2025.
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Situated among rolling mountains and gorges, making up over 92 percent of its land, Guizhou is home to nearly half of the world's 100 highest bridges. Nearly 30,000 bridges have been constructed since the late 1970s. The Beipanjiang Bridge on the border of the Guizhou and Yunnan provinces is currently the world's highest bridge, sitting about 565 metres above a valley, equivalent to the height of a 200-storey building. It cost over £111 million to build and was completed in November 2016.
By 2030, Guizhou will have more than 1,000 bridges over 100 metres high as measured from the road or rail deck to the water. Comparatively, Italy has the second greatest number of high bridges, with only 60 spans exceeding 100 metres in height, according to highestbridges.com.
In January 2024, a team of engineers who built bridges in Guizhou was awarded the National Engineer Award for their outstanding contributions to engineering technology.
"Guizhou boasts lots of bridges, which have brought me opportunities and challenges," said Ouyang Song, 29, who heads the engineering section of the Huajiang project.