The main tower of the cable-stayed bridge for the Qianjiang Xinglong Hub second-line ship lock project is capped.

On September 30, the main tower of the cable-stayed bridge for the Qianjiang Xinglong Hub Second-Line Ship Lock Project, invested by the Hubei Port Group and constructed by CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd., was successfully topped off. This marks the official transition of the project’s key supporting bridge works to the superstructure construction phase, laying a solid foundation for the project's timely completion and navigation.

The Qianjiang Xinglong Hub Second-Line Ship Lock Project is a critical passage of the national high-grade waterway network "Han-Xiang-Gui" corridor and a key artery of Han River navigation. It is also the first second-line ship lock in the Han River basin to begin construction. The project mainly includes the construction of the ship lock, waterway, and supporting bridge works. Among them, the cable-stayed bridge across the lock is 1,262 meters long, with a main span of 120 meters × 2. The main tower is 85 meters tall and has a diamond-shaped design, consisting of a tower cap, upper tower column, and lower tower pier. The bridge spans the newly built ship lock and serves as a crucial land traffic connection between the two banks of Tianmen and Qianjiang in Hubei.

The main tower of the bridge is a low-tower cable-stayed structure with thin walls, requiring high construction control standards and posing significant challenges in line shape control and quality management during forming. The construction team tailored a specialized construction plan and adopted a full-process refined concrete temperature control curing system. By using comprehensive temperature control measures, they mitigated the risks of hydration heat in thin-wall structures, effectively preventing quality issues such as structural cracking and deformation, and precisely controlling the bridge's line shape and structural stress. For the diamond-shaped tower column, the team used a slanted climbing hydraulic formwork system tailored to match the inclined shape of the diamond design for the first time, monitoring the entire process of formwork lifting to ensure construction safety. Addressing challenges such as the narrow interior of the tower and difficulties in implementing traditional processes, the technical team repeatedly optimized formwork design, splitting integrated formwork into modular units adaptable to confined spaces. They independently developed several small-scale specialized construction tools, ensuring structure quality and construction efficiency within limited working spaces.

The team innovatively adopted the "bridge and lock simultaneous construction" model, coordinating the planning and implementation of the bridge and ship lock works. This enabled synchronization in planning, design, and construction throughout the entire lifecycle, optimized resource allocation, and significantly improved overall construction efficiency.

After the main tower topping-out, the project will move into the phases of main girder and cable installation, as well as deck system and auxiliary structure construction. The ship lock construction is steadily advancing simultaneously. Since the groundbreaking, the project has withstood the challenges of two Han River flood seasons. The team innovatively applied integrated optimization techniques for deep foundation pit support and seepage prevention, achieving combined control of soil stabilization, collapse prevention, water sealing, and settlement stabilization. For the 422,000 cubic meters of massive concrete, key temperature control and anti-cracking technologies for large-volume concrete were fully implemented, supported by a smart construction site and intelligent monitoring system for real-time monitoring throughout the process with traceable quality. Currently, all base slab casting for the ship lock has been completed, and the upper and lower lock chamber heads are expected to be topped off by the end of the year.

Upon completion, the project will effectively resolve the bottleneck in Han River navigation, accommodate the trend of larger ship development, and connect the 3,200-kilometer Han-Xiang-Gui water transportation artery. It will contribute to the construction of "Hubei on the Water," injecting robust momentum into enhancing Hubei's role as a central hub and its regional openness and radiative capacity.