Significant HSR progress on Yellow River bridge

A key north-south high-speed railway reached a new milestone when its super bridge traversing China's second longest river witnessed full connection of trussed steel beams on Friday.

Workers from China Railway No 4 Engineering Group Co Ltd (CREC4) worked on the Yellow River Super Bridge, which uses some 43,000 metric tons of steel on its 1,600-meter-long body, for the HSR linking Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei province with Shangqiu in Central China's Henan province.

The bridge, linking Taiqian county in Henan and Liangshan county in Shandong, is also the world's longest ballastless track bridge with continuous girders.

The 552-kilometer Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR is part of the 639-km Beijing-Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR, which aims to boost the development of Xiong'an, established in April 2017 by the central authorities.

Spanning the three counties of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin in Hebei, Xiong'an New Area aims to relieve Beijing of functions nonessential to its role as the national capital in a bid to seek a new development model for densely populated areas.

The new area, dubbed "a strategy crucial for a millennium to come", will help advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

While the Beijing-Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR will have 18 railway stations, the Xiong'an-Shangqiu section will have 16 stations allowing trains to run at a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

The CREC4 builders are undertaking the line's No 11 bid, which extends for 17.38 km, starting from Taiqian county in Henan's Puyang and ending at Jining, which administers Liangshan county.

"During construction work on the super bridge, we've followed stringent work procedures and scientific allocation of the builders, machines and building materials, so as to usher in the successful job and help the super bridge become a quality and model project," said Xing Wenbin, a CREC4 project manager in charge of the 4th sub-branch of the No 11 Bid Project for Exterior Lines of Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR.

Starting its construction in September 2022, the Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR is expected to open to traffic in September 2026, said Wen Liangcheng, a CREC4 publicity official.

It has been learned that the Xiong'an-Shangqiu section of Beijing-Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR will also be an important part of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Taiwan HSR, included in the country's "eight verticals and eight horizontals" HSR network. Upon operation, it will connect with the Beijing-Xiong'an section, and some other high-speed railways in the country.