Xinqiao Railway Bridge
Xinqiao Railway Bridge
渝利铁路新桥特大桥
Fuling, Chongqing, China
410 feet high / 125 meters high
315 foot span / 96 meter span
2013
The second largest railway viaduct on earth, the colossal Xinqiao Railway Bridge is part of the new double track Yu-Li Railway line near Fuling and Chongqing city that connects to the Yichang to Wanzhou line in nearby Hubei Province. Completed in 2013, it is now possible to travel by rail from Shanghai to Chongqing in just 8 hours.
Xinqiao is one of two back to back bridges that are the #1 and #2 largest railway viaducts on earth. Located to the west of Xinqiao is the Caijiagou Railway viaduct which has the 2 largest railway piers on earth rising 140 meters from foundation to the underside of the beam. Xinqiao is nearly as impressive with piers that reach a height of 116 meters. But if Xinqiao is not quite as high as Caijiagou it ranks first among China's super tall railway bridges with a length of 2.55 kilometers. The central span configuration of 777 meters is especially impressive with a span arrangement of 52＋7×96＋52 meters. The five main piers have the signature 人 shape that is also on the nearby Caijiagou Bridge.
Just to give you a scale of this kind of railway bridge realize that no other railway bridge on earth has more then two piers over 100 meters in height except for Brazil's Viaduto 13. The Caijiagou and Xinqiao Railway Bridges each have four piers over 100 meters tall. The only other railway bridge that has a similar scale of height and length is the herculean Daishagou Railway Bridge in Shanxi Province with a length of 1.835 kilometers - nearly all of it over 80 meters in height.
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
The Xinqiao Railway Viaduct is very similar to Caijiagou but is located on the opposite side of a mountain tunnel east of Caijiagou across an even wider valley with a length of 2.55 kilometers though the piers are not nearly as high. The easiest way to tell the two viaducts apart is Caijiagou has a cross member inside of each 人 shaped pier openings while the eastern viaduct has no cross members within the piers. The Xinqiao Viaduct also has 4 piers shaped like a 人 while Caijiagou has only 3.
You can click in to the above satellite close up for a more detailed view of the Caijiagou Railway Viaduct.
A satellite view of the massive Xinqiao Railway Viaduct east of Caijiagou.
You can click in to the above satellite close up for a more detailed view of the Xinqiao Railway Viaduct.
A satellite view of the Caijiagou Railway Viaduct under construction just north of the highway. The Yangtze River is at the bottom.
A wide view showing the 2 massive railway bridges with the 2 kilometer long Caijiagou Viaduct in the upper left and the 2.55 kilometer Xinqiao Railway Viaduct in the upper right that are separated by a 2 kilometer tunnel. These are arguably the two largest railway viaducts on earth!
