China rotated a 17,000-ton bridge into place after its construction

China have astonished the world with another engineering masterpiece. They built a section of a gigantic overpass and slowly rotated it into place once it was completed. This is the first time this technique was used in Asia and the second worldwide.

before rotation

The idea was used back in 1968 to construct the Kingsgate Bridge, across the River Wear in Durham, when they built the two halves of the bridge on the river’s bank then swung them 90 degrees into place.

A traditional construction of the overpass would not be feasible as it would disturb the high speed railway track below it in Wuhan City. So the Chinese then built the flyover section that would go over all of the railway station parallel to the rails. Then, in a remarkable act of engineering, they lifted the 17,000 ton structure 15 meters, slowly rotated it 106 degrees, and connected it to the highway lane in 90 minutes.
Swing bridges are essentially movable bridges that are held in place by a vertical locating pin and a support ring, which enables the structures to swivel around horizontally. Once completely finished, the overpass will be 256 meters long and spans 11 railways, including the 1,428 mile-long Beijing-Guangzhou service.
After weeks of construction, the 17,000 ton structure was slowly brought into place.

after rotation

Engineers took 90 minutes to swivel the structure into place and experts say that it should be open to traffic in just a month! With the country’s high speed rail network being the largest in the world, engineers looked into history for an intuitive solution, and boy did they pull it off.
what a feat!