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The Pingnan Third Bridge (), internationally known as Pingnan Third Bridge, is a road bridge that crosses the
Xun River The Xun River ( Chinese: 浔江, pinyin: Xún Jiāng, jyutping: ''Cham4 Gong1'') is a short section of the main branch of the Pearl River system upstream from the Xi Jiang in China. Although less than 200km long, it is of considerable importanc ...
, a section of the
Xi River The Xi River (; ) or Si-Kiang is the western tributary of the Pearl River in southern China. It is formed by the confluence of the Gui and Xun Rivers in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It originates from the eastern foot of the Maxiong Mountain in Quji ...
(which later flows into the
Pearl River The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...
). It is part of the new western bypass of Pingnan in the
Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
province of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The bridge, with a total length of 1035 m, carries four lanes of traffic with emergency lanes and sidewalks on both sides. It consists of a 170 m long approach bridge on the south bank, a CFST
arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...
with a main span of 575 m, and a 280 m long approach bridge on the north bank.The sum of these dimensions is 1025 m, but the length of the bridge is generally given as 1035 m, which may be due to whether or not the expansion joints are included in the calculation. As of 2025, with its main span of 575 m, it is the world's second-largest arch bridge after the Tian'e-Longtan Bridge (600 m span) was inaugurated in 2024. It is larger than the
Chaotianmen Bridge The Chaotianmen Bridge (), is a road-rail bridge over the Yangtze River in the city of Chongqing, China. The bridge, which opened on 29 April 2009, is the world's longest through arch bridge. The continuous steel truss arch bridge with tie gird ...
(552 m span), which previously topped the
list of largest arch bridges This list of the longest arch bridge spans ranks the world's arch bridges by the length of their main Span (architecture), span. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank bridges as it usually correlates with the engineering compl ...
, and significantly surpasses the
Bosideng Bridge The Bosideng Bridge () is a highway bridge over the Yangtze River in Hejiang County, Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba ...
, which, with a span of 530 m, was previously the largest CFST arch bridge. Its large, red arch is 34.3 m wide and consists of two arch ribs connected and stiffened by
wind bracing In architecture, wind braces are diagonal braces to tie the rafters of a roof together and prevent racking. In medieval roofs they are arched, and run from the principal rafters to catch the purlin A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, p ...
. The sidewalks are routed outside the arch. Each arch rib is made of four steel tubes with a diameter of 140 cm, which are connected transversely with 85 cm diameter tubes and vertically with 70 cm diameter tubes. The ribs are 4.20 m wide, and their structural depth decreases from 17 m at the
abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...
s to 8.5 m at the crown. To avoid problems associated with filling the tubes with concrete (incomplete filling, shrinkage of the concrete), a
vacuum A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...
pumping method and a special type of concrete were developed. The bridge deck is a composite structure of a steel
plate girder A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), w ...
grid and a 15 cm thick concrete slab. The southern abutment could be founded relatively easily on the bedrock, while the northern abutment in the local gravel required particularly extensive and technologically demanding foundation work. The paired
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
of the approach bridges are supported on bored piles. Construction began on August 7, 2018. The completed bridge was opened to traffic on December 28, 2020. The arch and the bridge deck were prefabricated in large sections, weighing up to 215 tons, which were delivered by ship and lifted into position by a large cable crane. Two tall truss towers were built first for the cable crane, to which the arch halves, erected by the , were also anchored back. The respective crane loads and the tension of the back-anchoring had to be continuously monitored and adjusted, partly with the help of satellite-based surveying.


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* * {{cite journal , last1=Zheng , first1=Jielian , last2=Du , first2=Hailong , last3=Mu , first3=Tingmin , last4=Liu , first4=Jiaping , last5=Qin , first5=Dayan , last6=Mei , first6=Guoxiong , last7=Tu , first7=Bing , date=20 September 2021 , title=Innovations in Design, Construction, and Management of Pingnan Third Bridge – The Largest-Span Arch Bridge in the World. , journal=Structural Engineering International , url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354721714_Innovations_in_Design_Construction_and_Management_of_Pingnan_Third_Bridge-The_Largest-Span_Arch_Bridge_in_the_World , doi=10.1080/10168664.2021.1963300 Road bridges in China Arch bridges Buildings and structures in Guangxi Transport in Guangxi Bridges completed in 2020 Concrete filled steel tube Bridges in Asia