HSR marks steady progress as bridge work speeds up

Amid the nation's push to perfect its high-speed rail network, a key HSR has made steady headway as the world's longest ballastless track bridge with continuous girders traversing China's second-longest river finished casting all ballastless tracks.

Workers from State-builder China Railway No 4 Engineering Group ushered in the new achievement on the Yellow River Super Bridge, which uses some 43,000 metric tons of steel on its 1,600-meter-long body, on Oct 24 as part of a north-south HSR linking Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei province with Shangqiu in Central China's Henan province.

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, which was established in April 2017.

CREC4 employee Zang Pengqi said the Xiong'an-Shangqiu section of the Beijing-Xiong'an-Shangqiu HSR is also a key section of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Taiwan HSR, included in the country's "eight verticals and eight horizontals" HSR network.

Following the recently concluded fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a communique was issued on Oct 23 highlighting the importance of boosting China's strength in transportation and developing a modernized infrastructure system.

China National Railway Group, the nation's railway operator, said currently, the country's HSR network spans about 48,000 kilometers, accounting for 70 percent of the world's total. To better support Chinese modernization, the HSR network will steadily expand.

Zang said statistics show that China's railway investment reached 433 billion yuan ($60.9 billion) in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year hike of 5.6 percent. The country's HSR mileage may surpass 50,000 km by year-end.

In 2024, the country's fixed assets investment on railways hit 850.6 billion yuan, up 11.3 percent year-on-year and a record high, he said.

Zang disclosed that rail laying was expected to start on the Yellow River Super Bridge on Nov 2, with test operations of HSR trains scheduled to commence in February, and the formal operation of the whole line slated for September 2026.

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

He added that CREC4's section involves an investment of 2.706 billion yuan.

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

Tao Yu, chief engineer of the No 1 division of the CREC4 project department for the line's section 11, said from the start of their project on Sept 29, 2022, CREC4 has required the constructors to make innovations on the world's longest ballastless track bridge with continuous girders traversing the Yellow River.

During the past three years, CREC4 has allocated over 26 million yuan for Tao and his team members to spend on research and development work.

The entire bridge has 10 main piers and nine spans, with the longest span extending for 280 meters and its support pier stationed in the middle of the river, he said, adding that China Railway Track System III slab ballastless tracks will be installed on the bridge deck.

"During the construction work on the super bridge, we've followed stringent scientific innovations," Tao said, noting that their optimization of one work procedure once helped CREC4 save about 10 million yuan in purchasing facilities in building the bridge.