Jiaoziping Bridge
Jiaoziping Bridge
椒子坪大桥
Wushan, Chongqing, China
500 feet high / 152 meters high
394 foot span / 120 meter span
2012
One of the most spectacular bridges on a highway filled with many great beam crossings, the Jiaoziping Bridge crosses a deep cut high up on the slope of the Xigou River canyon. Located just 8 kilometers east of the giant Daninghe River Bridge on the G42 expressway, Jiaoziping has a span configuration of 5 × 20 + (65 +120 +65) meters. The piers are 93 and 82 meters tall.
Nearby Yangjiawu #2 Bridge is equally spectacular and I will make an entry when I have more information on the height and span. What makes the Jiaoziping and Yangjiawu Bridges unnerving is the precariously steep slopes that would seem to be impossible to build on. Yet there they are - piers at tall as 93 meters, planted into the side of a mountain. The western slopes are especially steep with nearly 15 meters of the foundation piles exposed below the bottom of the piers.
The stretch of the G42 west of Wushan in Chongqing Province was completed in 2009 while the eastern stretch of the G42 in Hubei Province opened in 2013.
A banner touts the 93 meter height of the piers. Another 15 meters of round piles can be seen below.
A view of the nearby and equally spectacular Yangjiawu Bridge #2 杨家屋2#大桥 over a similar canyon.
The Western piers were built on slopes that are between 60 and 80 degrees.
