Design and static analysis of Guanyinyan Yangtze River Bridge, China

The Guanyinyan Yangtze River Bridge is the key structure on the second ring highway of Chongqing City, southwest of China. The bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 436 m. The main girder is a steel–concrete composite girder with a total width of 36ṡ2 m. The final design solution was based on an extensive comparison of proposals. The main bridge was constructed using the balanced cantilever method. This paper presents the challenges in design and static analysis of the bridge, including the detailed design, global static analysis, local finite element model analysis, the determination of the allowable maximum thickness of steel plate against fatigue and brittle fracture induced by low temperature.