Runyang Yangtze River Highway Bridge Project is a part of the main highway network program and one of the most important links spanning Yangtze River in Jiangsu, China, connecting Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, two famous cities in Chinese history. Completion of the project will speed up the economic development of Jiangsu and the Yangtze River Delta.
The whole project is 35,66 km long and total investment is about 568 EUR millions. The project was started on October 2000, and was opened to traffic in April 2005. The bridges over the Yangtze River (Fig.1) are about 7,4 km long, and comprise the North Approach, the North Branch Bridge, the Shiye Island Viaduct, the South Branch Bridge, and the South Approach.
The Shiye Island, in the middle of the Yangtze River, divides it into two branches. The South Branch Bridge is a single-span, two-hinge, steel box girder suspension bridge with a main span of 1490 m. The North Branch Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with a center span of 406 m, with two towers, two lateral planes of cables, and a three span continuous steel box girder.
To satisfy the navigation requirements and the criteria for the stability of the riverway, the South Branch Suspension Bridge crossing the Yangtze River with one span was selected. This bridge is the longest span completed to date in China, and the third-longest span in the world. This paper briefly presents the key technical design and construction issues of the South Branch Bridge.