Zhangjiaping Bridge

Zhangjiaping Bridge
张家坪特大桥
Longtoushanzhen, Yunnan, China
(427) feet high / (130) meters meters high
427 foot span / 130 meter span
2023

The Zhangjiaping Bridge is a 1,582 meter long viaduct with a main span of 130 meters on the south end supported on piers as tall as 84 meters. The bridge is one of several large beam crossings located on a very remote stretch of the G7611 between Zhaotong and the Jinsha River gorge where the route crosses the famous river on the single tower Jinyang Jinshajiang cable stayed bridge.

The 205 kilometer G7611 Expressway has approximately 86.6 kilometers of bridges and 55.8 kilometers of tunnels making up 72.4% of the entire route.

Zhangjiaping Bridge satellite image.

Zhangjiaping Bridge location map.

The planning of the G7611 Zhaotong Expressway gives a great insight into the design process the Chinese engineers must undertake while planning an extremely mountainous expressway route with more then 72% of the length in tunnels or on bridges.

The difficulty in finding the best route for the G7611 was magnified by the terrain's continuous descent from an elevation of 2,000 meters in Zhaotong to 500 meters at the Jinsha River. Six routes were studied before they chose a variation of the red route. Several of the routes include extensive spiral switchbacks to ease the steepness of the grade.

Regional map showing planned expressways including the Xichang to Zhaotong expressway in red.