Research on Long-span Bridges with Composite Style of Continuous Rigid Frame and Flexible Arch

The railway from YiChang to WanZhou will cross the the Yangtze River in YiChang city where an extra-large bridge will be constructed, and the main bridge is arranged as a long-span of 130 m + 2×275 m +130 m with a composite style of continuous rigid frame and flexible arch. This new-style bridge with such a composite structure has large vertical stiffness, excellent resistance to force impact and cost-effectiveness, which will speed up the progess and development of the technology of long-span railway bridges. This paper diwscribes the design study of such composite-style bridge and the analyses on the structures.