Caijia Rail Transit Bridge

The 1,230-meter-long, cable-stayed Caijia Rail Transit Bridge is considered one of the world’s highest metro line crossings at close to 100 meters above water level.

Carrying two mass transit rail tracks, the signature bridge has a 640-meter-long main section that consists of five spans (60 meters, 135 meters, 250 meters, 135 meters, and 60 meters). The southern end section comprises two 45-meter-long spans, while the northern end section has six spans of 60 meters and three spans of 50 meters.

TYLin’s bridge design successfully met stringent functionality requirements and aesthetic demands made by the project owners and the city of Chongqing.

Project Highlights: 

• TYLin’s cable-stayed design offers the advantages of both a visually appealing profile and the appropriate deflection control. 
• The bridge design accommodates substantial seasonal variances in river height and width while matching the 250-meter main span length of two nearby bridges. 
• To give the narrow profile of the two-track bridge girder a more robust appearance, a diamond shape was selected for the 186-meter-tall towers, along with a double-plane arrangement for the cables. 
• The two legs of the lower portion of the towers were connected to form a box cross section, enabling the towers to better resist vessel impacts at a variety of water levels. 
• A detailed analysis of rolling stock to assess the dynamic behavior of the bridge showed that TYLin’s bridge design is stable for its design loads. 
• To adjust the cable forces and girder elevation if needed, the upper and lower ends of the cables can be stressed inside the tower legs or beneath the girder wing slab using a single, large hydraulic jack.