Record set for China's largest concrete pour during east China bridge project

The pier base is under construction. [Photo/chinanews.com]

The concrete pour has been completed during the construction of the pier base of a cable-stayed road-rail bridge in east China, marking the largest continuous concrete pour in China's bridge construction history.

A total of 42,900 cubic meters of concrete was poured to build a pier base of the size of 12 basketball courts, with 7,420 tonnes of steel bars used for the bridge connecting Shanghai and Nantong, Jiangsu Province, said Liu Ziming, chairperson of the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Corporation.

The pour project for the nine-meter-high pier base was divided into two stages, with 3.3 meters poured in the first stage and another 5.7 meters poured in the second stage.

About 27,800 cubic meters of concrete was poured at the second stage, setting a record for continuous concrete pour in volume in China's bridge construction history.

More than 400 workers took part around the clock for 100 hours to pour the base at the record-setting stage.

The Shanghai-Nantong combined bridge is 11 kilometers long and consists of four railway lines and six expressway lanes. The main span of the bridge is 1,092 meters, the world's largest span for a cable-stayed railway-expressway bridge.

Construction of the bridge began in 2014, and it is expected to take more than five years to complete.