| Yangluo Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Carries | Wuhan Ring Road |
| Crosses | Yangtze River |
| Locale | Wuhan, Hubei, China |
| Maintained by | Wuhan Rao Cheng Highway Management Division[1] |
| Design | Suspension |
| Total length | 2,725 m (8,940 ft) |
| Width | 38.5 m (126 ft) |
| Height | 169.8 m (557 ft) (south pylon) 163.3 m (536 ft) (north pylon) |
| Longest span | 1,280 m (4,200 ft) |
| Opened | December 26, 2007 |
| Connects: Hongshan District (6) with Xinzhou District (13) |
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The Yangluo Bridge (Chinese: 阳逻大桥; pinyin: Yangluo Daqiao) is a suspension bridge near Wuhan in the Hubei province of China. With a main span of 1,280 metres (4,200 ft), it is tied with the Golden Gate Bridge for the ninth longest suspension bridge in the world.[2] The purpose of the bridge is to carry the recently constructed Wuhan Ring Road over the Yangtze River and provide easy access to both sides of the river as part of a larger plan to promote development in the eastern portion of the city. Construction on the bridge began on November 4, 2003 and it opened to traffic on December 26, 2007.[3][4]
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The Yangluo Bridge is the fourth span to be constructed over the Yangtze at Wuhan. The first was the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, known locally as the First Bridge, built in 1957. This remained the only land link across the river for the next four decades and it became increasingly congested as the city grew. To alleviate the crowding on the bridge and promote further development in the city, Wuhan's government began an ambitious program in the early 1990s to upgrade the city's infrastructure by building new bridges and freeways around the city. Two further road crossings near the center of the city (the Second Bridge and Third Bridge), were completed in 1995 and 2000 respectively. The Yangluo Bridge is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) downstream from these bridges and together with the 10 km of new freeways constructed concurrently, forms the last major portion of the Wuhan Ring Road.
The bridge was designed by the China Communications Construction Company and built with assistance from Dorman Long Technology, a UK-based heavy-lift construction contractor. It has a total length of 1,970 metres (6,460 ft) with a main span of 1,280 metres (4,200 ft) and approach spans of 250 metres (820 ft) and 440 metres (1,440 ft) on the north and south banks respectively.[2][3][5]
The bridge's deck is made of prefabricated concrete sections with an epoxy asphalt roadbed. It also includes a 3-metre (9.8 ft) thick steel brace structure with girders at 14 metre intervals under the main deck to stiffen the bridge against the wind. The two main cables that support the deck are 83 centimetres (33 in) in diameter and each consists of 19,558 5.35 mm steel wires arranged in 154 strands. The portion of the cables over the shorter northern approach span include an additional eight strands to withstand the greater force exerted on them because of the smaller ratio in relation to the length of the main span. The north and south support towers for the main cables are 163.3 metres (536 ft) and 169.8 metres (557 ft) tall respectively and constructed of reinforced concrete with two prestressed concrete x-braces on each tower to provide lateral stiffening.[2]
Coincidentally, the bridge's main span of 1,280 metres (4,200 ft) is exactly the same length as the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California that opened 70 years prior.[2]