Erhaihe Bridge

Erhaihe Bridge
耳海河大桥
Qianxi, Guizhou, China
669 feet high / 204 meters high
623 foot span / 190 meter span
2017

Located at kilometer 47 on the expressway between Qianxi and the G56 near Zunyi, the colossal Erhaihe Bridge is the largest beam bridge viaduct ever built in Guizhou Province with a central pier rising 175 meters that ranks among the 20 tallest bridge piers in the world. The wide Erhai River valley required a total of 5 piers that exceed 100 meters in height supporting four main spans of 190 meters. A number of 40 meter approach spans bring the total length of the structure to 1.42 kilometers.

south of the famous 3 Gorges region of the Yangtze River in China’s mountainous Hubei Province, Shuanghekou is just one of several towering prestressed concrete beam bridges on the last 300 mile (483 km) link of the 1,350 mile (2,175 km) long G50 West Hurong expressway that now connects Shanghai on the Pacific coast with the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu in the west.  The last in a parade of 3 high bridges that lead up to the Siduhe tunnel and Siduhe bridge, Shuanghekou crosses a rugged, V-shaped river valley 666 feet (203 mtrs) deep.  The most notable design element of the bridge is the extremely high center pier of 535 feet (163 meters).  Straddling it are two main spans of 558 feet (170 meters).  The parallel viaducts are of unequal length with one side having a configuration of 4x30+90+2x170+90+7x30 and the other side 3x30+90+2x170+90+4x30.

The entire West Hurong highway is nothing less than the greatest stretch of roadway engineering ever undertaken. It is home to no less than 10 bridges that exceed 500 feet (152 meters) including Siduhe, the world’s highest bridge and Zhijinghe, the highest roadway arch. Among concrete beam bridge viaducts it has two of the highest in the world over the Mashui and Longtan Rivers. This more direct route bypasses one of the toughest and most mountainous stretches of the Yangtze River. What once took more than a day of travel on dangerous dirt roads or a Yangtze river boat can now be safely traversed in 5 hours.