As over 200 construction workers worked day and night during the May Day holiday to catch up with the construction schedule, the Hangzhou Bay Sea-crossing Railway Bridge, the key control project of the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo High-speed Railway, ushered in an important milestone: at 6:00 pm of May 6, the first main tower of the south channel bridge of the railway bridge was successfully topped out. This marks the comprehensive transition of the main tower construction into a new stage of steel truss girder erection and inclined cable installation, laying a solid foundation for the timely completion and opening of the entire railway.

The main tower, numbered 160, with a height of 157.5 meters, equivalent to 56 floors, is constructed in 29 sections. It is composed of a tower base, lower tower columns, lower crossbeams, middle tower columns, and upper tower columns from bottom to top. It is the core “backbone” that carries the railway bridge deck and transmits train dynamic loads. Above the bridge deck, it is a smooth inverted Y-shape, and below the bridge deck, the tower columns converge inward in a diamond shape, ensuring mechanical stability and excellent wind and seismic resistance, while also embodying the aesthetic characteristics of modern bridges.

The Hangzhou Bay Sea-crossing Railway Bridge is 29.2 kilometers long, and the main tower is about 15 kilometers away from the south bank, making it a true “middle point” of the bridge.

The topping out of the first main tower of the South Channel Bridge is a milestone achievement in the construction of the super sea-crossing project. The whole South Channel Bridge is expected to be topped out in June and completed in August.