Pingtang Bridge – Third Tallest Bridge in the World

Over the deep Caodu River valley, the Pingtang Bridge carries the Pingtang Luodian Expressway across Pingtang, Guizhou, China. With a height of 1,089 feet, the bridge is the third-tallest in the world. Construction began on April 29, 2016, and the main bridge closing project was fully connected and opened to traffic on December 30, 2019.

In the west, the bridge connects Tongzhou with Yazhou, and in the east, it crosses the Caodu River Grand Canyon. A suspension bridge crossing the Caodu River was initially planned as a means of crossing the wide river valleys of Guizhou. A span of 1,100 to 1,400 meters would have been the main span. While the Caodu valley is a wide river valley, it has a ridge or hill located midway between its high sides, unlike most wide river valleys in Guizhou.

A multi-span cable-stayed bridge, the bridge stretches 7,000 feet. Featuring a 332-meter-high main tower, the bridge is the world’s third-tallest. Designed for 80 km/h, the bridge deck has four lanes in each direction. France’s Millau Viaduct, which has a similar structure to the Pingtang Bridge, has a taller tower, but the Pingtang Bridge has a 49-foot shorter one. Also, the bridge has a road deck that rises 310 meters above the river below, making it one of the world’s 20 highest bridges.

There was a cost of 1.5 billion yuan (about 215 million dollars) for the bridge’s construction. Among the components of the Jintang Bridge are the main bridge, three towers, piers, stay cables, and approach bridges. The main bridges run from the southwest to the northeast. As soon as the bridge is complete, it will enable designers and builders of large-span bridges in western China to use it as a reference.

Having been opened to traffic, the Pingtang Bridge is the main road connecting Guizhou Province’s south. This shortens the transit time from Pingtang to Luodian from two and a half hours to one hour. Despite the fact that the three skyscraper support towers received so much attention, the designers made considerable effort to emphasize the slim profile of these structures. This is because they had less bulk than one might expect from such a massive structure.