New overpass to accelerate Ganzhou's urbanization

China Railway 24th Bureau Group Corp Ltd (CR24), a unit of State-owned enterprise China Railway Construction Corp, is leveraging its edge in infrastructure construction to help Ganzhou, a major inland city in Jiangxi province, gain more speed in its revitalization process.

The SOE said it recently commenced construction of a key overpass in the city. The first box girder was successfully set despite many challenges, laying a solid foundation for the construction process that followed, which included building two ramp bridges above the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, one of the busiest lines in the nation.

Before CR24 builders managed to move the 177-metric-ton box girder onto the cap beams, they were faced with a series of complicated preparation jobs, such as setting up a string of pillars at only a 15-meter distance from each other while ensuring that the construction would not cause any disruptions to the normal functioning of the railway, the construction team told China Daily.

In addition, the project is located in downtown Ganzhou. The city center has complex pipeline and tube networks buried underneath, including those for 110-kilovolt cables, which called for coordinated efforts between the project team and various local government departments who handled rerouting the infrastructure, said the project's manager.

"The CR24 project team has done adequate preparatory work and managed to come this far," said Li Ye, deputy general manager of China Railway Nanchang Group Co Ltd, the local operator of the rail section near the project.

"After thoroughly studying the feasibility of construction, the project team made detailed plans for each minor step, and arranged technicians to conduct full-time oversight of the building process to guarantee safe construction of the overpass and safe operation of the rail line," Li said.

"Setting the first box girder above a major rail line is encouraging, and more importantly, it is a valuable experience to be followed not only in the remaining construction work, but also by other builders nationwide facing the same headache," said the project manager.

SOEs have moved this year to focus on infrastructure projects, which not only contributes to restoring economic momentum, but also brings long-term benefits, said Guo Lei, chief economist at GF Securities.

"Infrastructure construction will remain a policy focus in the second half," Guo said.

With girder installation now steadily progressing forward, the overpass, with an investment of 390 million yuan ($56.8 million), is expected to open to traffic by October, and play a key role in facilitating movement between old and new urban areas of the city, CR24 said.

Ganzhou is famous for its revolutionary history. In modern times, its development has lagged behind more prosperous areas, partly because of traffic congestion issues due to an outdated traffic system.

As part of a plan to improve residents' livelihoods, the local government started in 2017 to upgrade its urban road networks, including construction of 120 kilometers of expressways. Since then, six new elevated expressways totaling 50.3 km have been built.

The National Bureau of Statistics said investment in the infrastructure sector rose 7.1 percent year-on-year in the first half, reflecting the sector's role in shoring up the economy amid many woes as well as the nation's resolve described in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to upgrade its infrastructure nationwide.

He Jingwei contributed to this story.