On October 31, the Xiangshan Bridge, a pivotal project of Guangdong's Zhongshan Eastern Outer Ring Expressway, was successfully connected, adding a new organ-shaped landmark to the Pearl River Estuary.

Standing at 270 meters tall—equivalent to a 90-story building—the Xiangshan Bridge's main tower complements the surrounding skyline, creating another iconic attraction in the Greater Bay Area. The bridge spans 1,776 meters in total, with a main span of 880 meters, and features a double-deck design accommodating 16 lanes (8 lanes on the upper deck for expressway traffic and 8 reserved lanes on the lower deck).

The bridge’s inverted-Y-shaped main tower posed significant construction challenges. The project team employed hydraulic climbing formwork technology, casting the tower section by section—akin to dressing it in an "auto-growing" outer shell. For the superstructure, they developed China’s largest QMD1500 bridge deck crane for highways, capable of hoisting 1,300-ton steel truss segments with millimeter-level precision (within 3mm error).

An intelligent monitoring system acted as a "digital nervous system" to ensure safety, while full-segment lifting techniques minimized waterway occupation time. Recently, all 240 stay cables—the bridge’s "sinews"—were installed, resembling a bird spreading its wings and solidifying the foundation for the main span’s closure.

"Each cable’s tension must be precisely calibrated to ensure even load distribution," explained Li Kunxing, deputy project manager of the Xiangshan Bridge.

The stay cable system, though massive, demanded meticulous execution, with each of the 240 cables functioning as critical structural supports.