The city of Wuhan, located at the crossroads of central China, is a hub of air, rail and ferry transport. Wuhan is crossed by the gigantic Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), the third longest river in the world, and by the Han River. The Tianxingzhou Cable-stayed Road and Rail Bridge is a major project with a long main span, impressive structural load and high traffic speed.
The bridge
It is the road-rail cable-stayed bridge that has the longest span at the present time in the world.
The main bridge carries 6 road lanes and 4 railway tracks. Moreover, this bridge had complex construction methods, strict technical requirements and complicated coordination in terms of construction organisation.
Our mission
As the only foreign consultant, SYSTRA was in charge of performing the detailed analysis of the bridge including but not limited to:
- Definition of railway and road load standards and load combinations / Design basis report
- Complete Structural analysis including superstructures, substructures, foundations, pylons, etc.
- Dynamic Analysis under railway and road traffic
- Wind-resistance analysis
- Earthquake resistance analysis
SYSTRA was also in charge of the on-site construction supervision (including approval of construction/shop-drawings) and performed about 600 site-inspection reports.
project key figures
- Total bridge length: 4,657m
- 2,639m combined road-rail
- 2,018 m separated road-rail
- Main bridge: 1,092m
- Main centre span: 504m
- Passenger train speed: > 250 km/h
- Designed load capacity: 20,000 tons (cable-stayed bridge)
- Four rail tracks on the lower level
- Six lanes on the upper level

