Foundations of Yangtze River mainstream bridges in China

Until 20 December 2019, more than 160 bridges have been built or are under construction on the Yangtze River in China, among which 132 bridges span the Yangtze River mainstream. This paper statistically summarises the 132 bridges in detail from the aspects of bridge type, span and foundation type. In addition, classic cases are picked out and introduced for each foundation type, and the future development of Yangtze River bridges is proposed. The results show that the cable-stayed bridge is the most widely adopted bridge type; the span of Yangtze River mainstream bridges is mostly concentrated between 400 and 600 m, and obeys a normal distribution; the pier foundation of Yangtze River bridges currently has the following six types: pile foundation, caisson foundation, colonnade foundation, caisson–colonnade composite foundation, caisson–pile composite foundation and spread foundation, among which the pile foundation is the most widely used foundation; there are three types of anchorage foundations for suspension bridges: tunnel anchorage foundation, gravity excavation anchorage foundation and gravity caisson anchorage foundation; and the gravity excavation anchorage foundation is the most popular type because of the ease of construction.