Completion of the East Bridge arch enclosure in Chengdu. China.

Construction has been underway since the summer of 2021, with the construction of decks and arches using a conventional construction system with temporary supports and shoring.

The roof, beam, arch and tubular reinforcing elements were fabricated at the Jiangsu Huning Steel Structure & Machinery facility, which was involved in the construction and installation of the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The entire superstructure of the bridge is metallic with a total weight of 7,770 Tm. The repercussion of the orthotropic deck is 470 kg/m2 while the arches and their bracing is 170 kg/m2.

“The most relevant design feature and challenge was how to take advantage of the curvature of the roadway in plan in the structural solution,” says Muñoz-Rojas, CFC director for the Chengdu Bridge. The bridge axis in plan follows a curve with an initial radius of 350 m followed by a 500 m radius transition that connects to a straight line.

The action is part of an ambitious expansion plan for Chengdu City, in the so-called airport city, planned to accommodate more than 10 million people. The axes that have guided the design of this new urban space are the integration with the natural environment and the sustainability of the action.

CFC-SMEDI’s proposal was awarded in June 2019.

Bridge for road traffic, pedestrian and cyclist of a total length of 280 m. whose distinctive element is a self-signed arch that saves the river of 152 m. span and arrow of 21.7 m.

The formal and resistant particularity of the work comes from the cross of the curved path of the bridge combining the curvature in the plant with an inclination to the interior thus configuring from the structure, a work with a marked spatial dimension that provides a great visual dynamism.