Jiangxi River Bridge / Zaha Hadid Architects

Textual content description offered by the architects. The primary in a sequence of bridges on Chengdu’s West Line Street, the 295-meter Chengdu West First Bridge crosses the Jiangxi River, a tributary of the Tuojiang River in China’s Sichuan province. With its 185-meter central span and 55-meter secondary spans reaching the riverbanks, the Chengdu West First Bridge is a street, cycle, and pedestrian bridge over the meandering Jiangxi River; enabling the West Line Street to change into the western part of the Airport New City ring-road and cycle route.

As arches present probably the most environment friendly bridge construction for spans between 120-250 meters, this symmetrical bridge consists of two major metal arches that rise from both facet of the street deck. As they rise, the arches lean collectively to the touch tangentially at their crown, stabilizing the construction from lateral wind forces.

The dynamic curvature of the bridge’s supporting piers and abutments taper into its major arches and street deck, defining a sculptural landmark inside Chengdu’s transport infrastructure.

Commissioned to construct the bridge following the 2019 design competitors, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) used structural evaluation software program on the design’s digital mannequin. Analyzing all materials self-weight, superimposed lifeless load, and site visitors dwell loading, in addition to environmental concerns of wind and temperature, this evaluation ensured the construction and foundations have been designed to exceed the requirements required for once-in-200-year climate occasions.

With a height-to-span ratio of roughly 1:6, the bridge’s arches rise to 30 meters and are tied collectively at their base by longitudinal field girders that run alongside the sting of the street deck. These ties resist the outward horizontal thrust of every arch and considerably cut back the horizontal masses on the bridge’s foundations.

Concrete abutments at both finish of the bridge incorporate connectors linking the street deck to the West Line Street’s floor. With no foundations positioned within the Jiangxi River, intermediate piers are situated beneath the springing factors of the arches on every riverbank.

The bridge’s bored piles and abutments had been constructed utilizing typical in-situ bolstered concrete methods. The metal field sections of every arch had been prefabricated in optimum dimensions for transportation and meeting on web site. The sting field girder sections inside the street deck embody the cable anchorages. These sections had been additionally prefabricated and delivered in sections to be spliced along with on-site welding.

The bridge’s prefabricated plate cross girders had been delivered to the location and related to the sting girders by a bolted cowl plate splice connection. The concrete street deck has been constructed from precast panels mounted to the cross girders by in-situ concrete sew pours.

Cell cranes lifted all prefabricated steelwork and precast concrete components inside the bridge’s quick meeting schedule. The Chengdu West First Bridge crossing the Jiangxi River will open to the general public upon completion of the West Line Street.