World’s Longest Rail-and-Road Bridge Closes Main Span in China
On June 9, 2026, at 9:28 AM local time, the main span of the Chongqi Yangtze River Rail-and-Road Bridge was successfully closed, marking a major milestone in the construction of this critical transportation link. The bridge, spanning 4.09 kilometers across the north branch of the Yangtze River estuary, is the world’s longest-span rail-and-road dual-use ballastless track cable-stayed bridge, according to Xinhua News Agency.
A Key Link in China’s High-Speed Rail Network
The Chongqi Bridge connects Shanghai’s Chongming Island with Qidong in Jiangsu Province and serves as a key control project of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu Yangtze River High-Speed Railway (沪渝蓉沿江高铁), part of China’s “Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal” high-speed railway network. As CCTV News reported, the bridge is one of eight under-construction river-crossing channels in Jiangsu Province, referred to as “Eight Dragons Crossing the Yangtze” (八龙过江).
The bridge features a dual-deck design: the upper deck carries a dual-direction six-lane Class 1 highway with a design speed of 100 km/h, while the lower deck accommodates a dual-track high-speed railway capable of 350 km/h alongside a dual-track intercity railway rated at 250 km/h. This makes it China’s first Yangtze River bridge designed to allow 350 km/h high-speed rail crossing without deceleration.
Engineering Marvels and Millimeter Precision
Construction of the bridge began on December 12, 2022, and the project has since overcome several world-class technical challenges. The two main towers rise 153 meters in an H-shaped vase-type reinforced concrete structure, built in 27 segments using intelligent tower-building machinery.
According to Jiang Yong (江湧), Chief Engineer of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group for the Chongqi Bridge project, the ballastless track design placed extraordinary demands on construction precision. “After the ballastless track is laid, the bridge deck alignment cannot be adjusted through the horizontal and vertical track alignment of the ballast bed like traditional ballasted tracks,” he explained, as reported by Sohu News. “The steel girder erection and closure of the bridge must achieve ‘millimeter-level’ precision.”
To meet this challenge, the project team employed a groundbreaking “Bidirectional Intelligent Collaborative Erection” approach. On the main span, two 1,100-ton erection cranes integrated with BIM, IoT, and intelligent sensing technology enabled real-time monitoring of steel girder posture, stress, and deformation, upgrading construction from experience-based to data-driven intelligent lifting. On the side span, a multi-point adaptive synchronous intelligent push-pull control system — developed by the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group’s State Key Laboratory for Bridge Structures — used Beidou satellite positioning and digital twin technology to achieve millisecond-level displacement monitoring and automatic correction.
Xiong Kaibing (熊开兵), Project Manager for the Chongqi Bridge, noted that the two techniques “not only individually conquered the world-class challenges of single cantilever erection and long-distance incremental launching, but through data fusion and system coordination, they achieved a high-precision ‘two-way rendezvous.’”
What Comes Next
Yin Xueguo (殷学国), Commander of the Shanghai National Railway Construction Management Company Chongming Command, confirmed that the successful closure marks the basic completion of the main structure. As reported by Modern Express, the project will now transition to deck system construction, ballastless track laying, and “four-electric” system installation. The bridge is expected to be operational by 2027.
Regional Economic Impact
Once completed, the Chongqi Bridge will dramatically reshape transportation in the Yangtze River Delta region. The railway travel time from Shanghai to Qidong will be reduced from the current 2.5 hours to under 30 minutes — just 27 minutes according to Modern Express. This will create a fast new transportation corridor connecting three major metropolitan circles: Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hefei.
The bridge is expected to significantly enhance the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation corridor of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and serve the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta (长三角一体化), a key national strategy.
A Milestone in Intelligent Bridge Construction
The Chongqi Bridge represents the cutting edge of bridge engineering technology. Its successful main span closure demonstrates China’s advancing capabilities in intelligent construction methods — including BIM, IoT sensing, Beidou positioning, and digital twin technology — applied to megaproject delivery. As the world’s first full steel-truss composite girder cable-stayed bridge where the highway concrete deck slab participates in the primary structural system, it sets new benchmarks for the industry.
With completion expected in 2027, the Chongqi Yangtze River Rail-and-Road Bridge stands as a testament to the rapid advancement of China’s infrastructure capabilities and its commitment to regional economic integration through world-class transportation links.