On September 27, the "Tiejian Dajiao Zhuang 1," the world's largest pile driving vessel invested in and built by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group, departed from the foreign trade wharf of Lüsi Port in Jiangsu, heading for All Saints' Bay in Bahia State, Brazil, where it will participate in the construction of the Salvador Sea Crossing Bridge, the largest sea-crossing cable-stayed bridge in Latin America.

According to the plan, the vessel will depart from the Yangtze River Estuary, pass through the Strait of Malacca and the Cape of Good Hope, enter the South Atlantic, and arrive off the coast of Recife on the northeastern coast of Brazil, covering a voyage of 11,300 nautical miles with an estimated travel time of 45 days. Prior to departure, both the vessel and shore teams completed the preparation of specialized plans, route surveying, and risk assessment, with dynamic monitoring conducted throughout the journey.

The Salvador Sea Crossing Bridge spans All Saints' Bay, the largest bay in Brazil, and is the world's sea-crossing bridge with the largest water-depth pile foundation. The water depth at the main bridge pile foundation construction site is 64 meters, with complex marine geological conditions. The "Tiejian Dajiao Zhuang 1," with an operating water depth of up to 70 meters, is the world's largest pile driving vessel independently designed and built by China. It has a total length of 130.5 meters, a pile frame height of 156 meters, and a pile lifting capacity of 700 tons. It can drive super-large pile foundations with a diameter of 7 meters. It is currently the pile driving vessel with the highest pile frame, the largest pile lifting capacity, and the deepest operating water depth in the world, capable of resolving the operational bottlenecks of traditional pile driving equipment in deep and distant seas and complex sea conditions, such as "out of reach, inaccurate driving, and unstable positioning."

Technologically, the vessel has achieved two global firsts: the first application of "DP dynamic positioning + anchor mooring positioning" fusion technology on a large pile driving vessel. Anchor mooring positioning involves casting anchors from the four corners of the hull into the seabed to secure the vessel's position, while the dynamic positioning system senses wind, waves, and currents in real time, using the stern and bow thrusters to generate reverse thrust for fine adjustment of the hull. Combined with the domestically produced BeiDou high-precision satellite positioning system, the pile driving positioning accuracy is controlled at the centimeter level. The second global first is the application of a main cylinder closed hydraulic system on a pile driving vessel. This system is entirely independently designed and manufactured in China, converting the potential energy from the pile frame's descent or forward tilt into electrical energy for recovery, achieving an energy recovery rate of 40%.

The Salvador Sea Crossing Bridge is invested in, constructed, and operated by a concession company jointly established by four shareholders including China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation under China Railway Construction Corporation. The main span of the bridge is 682 meters, and the total length of the entire line is 46.8 kilometers. Upon completion and opening to traffic, the travel time between the city of Salvador and the city of Vera Cruz will be reduced from 1 hour by ferry to approximately 15 minutes, and the transportation distance for goods such as grain, cotton, and fruit produced in western Bahia will be shortened by 200 kilometers.