The surging Yangtze River has gained a new landmark. On September 26, as the final steel girder was precisely hoisted into place, the highway section of the Shituo Yangtze River Bridge—a controlling project on the entire Chongqing-Wanzhou High-Speed Railway line built by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group—was successfully closed. This marks the full closure of both the railway and highway sections of the bridge, creating favorable conditions for subsequent bridge deck paving, ancillary facility construction, and the completion and opening of the entire Chongqing-Wanzhou High-Speed Railway line on schedule.
The Shituo Yangtze River Bridge is located in Yihe Town, Fuling District, Chongqing. It is constructed and managed by Chongqing-Wanzhou Railway Co., Ltd., jointly designed by China Railway Major Bridge Reconnaissance & Design Institute and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group, and built by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group. The main line of the bridge has a total length of 1,416.9 meters, with the main bridge spanning 1,056 meters. It adopts a design of a highway-railway same-level separated hybrid composite girder double-linked pylon cable-stayed bridge, with high-speed rail and highway running side by side on the same level in separate decks. Two "diamond-shaped" main pylons stand majestically, with Pylon No. 6 reaching 253 meters and Pylon No. 5 reaching 234.9 meters. The bridge deck is approximately 110 meters above the Yangtze River surface, equivalent to the height of more than 30 stories.
As another "new landmark" in China's bridge construction field, the bridge will set four "world firsts" upon completion and opening: the bridge innovatively adopts a highway-railway combined double-linked pylon structure, making it the world's first highway-railway combined double-linked pylon currently under construction, and also the world's first case of a highway-railway same-level separated main girder design. Among them, Pylon No. 6 is the world's tallest double-linked main pylon; the main span reaches 608 meters, making it the world's largest highway-railway combined same-level separated hybrid girder cable-stayed bridge.
A single bridge spans the Yangtze River with highway and railway running in parallel. As a shared bridge for the Chongqing-Wanzhou High-Speed Railway and the Fuling West Ring Expressway, the bridge will achieve "one bridge, two uses" for high-speed rail and expressway upon opening, with the two decks respectively carrying high-speed trains at a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour and six-lane urban expressway traffic across the Yangtze River. The railway portion of the bridge is a key hub for opening up a rapid corridor between northeastern Chongqing and the main urban area, while the highway portion is the most important river-crossing node of the Fuling Ring Expressway. The design blueprint of "highway-railway same level, one bridge shared" has thus become a reality. At present, the main works of the Chongqing-Wanzhou High-Speed Railway, including tunnels, subgrades, and bridges, have been completed, and track laying and post-station engineering construction are being fully advanced, laying a solid foundation for the completion and opening of the entire line in 2027.