Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge


The Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge is a combined road-rail bridge over the Yangtze River near the city of Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province in eastern China. It links Xunyang District of Jiujiang, south of the river, with Xiaochi Town in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, to the north. The central section of the bridge uses a combined arch and truss structure and the bridge is one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world, with a longest span of and a total truss length of =3x162+180+216+180+2x126. The double deck bridge carries four vehicular lanes and two sidewalks on the top deck and two railway tracks on the bottom deck.

History

Construction of the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge began in 1973 but due to work stoppages, the bridge was not completed until 1993. The bridge was originally designed to carry trucks weighing up to. In 2008, the tonnage limit was raised to. In November 2011, a crack was discovered in the bridge's steel structure and forced the authorities to close the bridge to freight traffic. In February 2012, the tonnage limit was lowered to.
The Jiujiang Fuyin Expressway Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge upstream, opened in 2013.