Research on the major dominant bridges of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, China

The Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway is completed and opened to traffic in December 2009, which is the first 350km/h unballast track passenger dedicated line in China. It epitomized and represented the latest achievement of railroad modernization in China. In this paper, four typical large-span bridges on the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway are introduced in detail, which are the steel-trussed cable-stayed bridge with largest span——Tianxingzhou Bridge (main span of 504m), the steel-trussed arch bridge with largest span——Dongping Channel Bridge (main span of 242m), the continuous beam bridge with largest span——Chencun Waterway Bridge (main span of 125m), the continuous rigid frame bridge with largest span——Xihuahai Bridge (main span of 168m). As the key projects of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, the structural systems, the type of main beam, the selection of deck system, the foundation arrangement, as well as the construction methods of the four bridges are compared in this paper, and the characteristics of multi-line heavy- load railway bridges are studied, which will provide practical reference for large span bridges on high-speed railways in the future.