Bridge Type Selection for Yellow River Three Gorges Bridge

The Yellow River Three Gorges Bridge is a control project of the Jiyuan-Xin an Expressway in Henan Province. To accommodate the specific topographic and geological conditions at the bridge site as well as the environmental protection requirements, three bridge types were proposed, including the two-tower suspension bridge with a main span of 510 m and with hanger cables arranged only in main span, one-tower suspension bridge with a main span of 510 m (where the tower is located at the south bank, the main cables are anchored to the north-bank anchorage in a looping manner via a deviation saddle) , and a half-through concrete-filled steel tubular arch bridge with a calculated main span length of 435 m. The three options were compared from perspectives of load bearing performance, construction scope, environmental impact and construction challenges. It is shown that all the three options meet the static and dynamic property requirements in the code. The one-tower suspension bridge with loop-anchored main cables exhibits poor economy, but wins over the other two options in terms of easier construction and controllable construction schedule, in addition, the one tower solution requires only a shallow gravity anchorage on Jiyuan bank, making a good reconciliation with the critical environmental protection requirements and the limited construction space at the bridge site. Moreover, the one-tower suspension bridge solution also creates smooth connection to the access tunnel, thus being the final recommended solution. © 2023 Wuhan Bridge Research Institute. All rights reserved.