Labajin Bridge

Labajin Bridge

Labajin Bridge with 183m pier 腊八斤大桥 Yingjing, Sichuan, China/One of the ten largest viaducts in the world, the huge new Labajin Bridge is a spectacular new addition to the G5 north-south highway that connects Chengdu with Kunming in China's western province of Sichuan. The most amazing part of this bridge is pier 10 which rises 600 feet (182.6 mtrs) from the foundation. This is the 3rd highest bridge pier ever built in China and ranks 5th in the world after Millau in France and the San Marcos bridge in Mexico. The Labajin Bridge uses a unique concrete pier design that the Chinese developed for just 3 large bridges on the Yaxi highway. The other two spans to use this first-ever technique are the Heighigou and Tangjiawan Bridges.The concept behind the SRC or steel reinforced concrete column is to combine the shear-wall strength of concrete but retain steel tubes for cross bracing and to maintain the skeletal strength of the piers to meet seismic requirements of bending and flexibility. The optimum height level for each concrete pier section was 12 meters which was partly determined by the weight of a 12 meter steel column which has a weight of 30 tons. The concrete is placed on both the outside and inside of the steel tubes making for a steel and concrete sandwich. At each 12 meter interval there is a flat concrete deck that gives the 4 walls rigidity.