The sections of Xiaojiang Bridge were successfully joined in Dongchuan District of Kunming City, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, on Saturday, laying foundation for the regular water storage of the Baihetan Hydropower Station.

The bridge, 752 meters in length and 98 meters in height, is a control project of the rebuilt Longdongge Highway located in an area prone to earthquakes of Level IX seismic intensity. The corrugated steel web construction is adopted to build the bridge, which is the first such structure to use corrugated steel web in Yunnan.

As earthquakes of Level IX seismic intensity could severely damage buildings and surface environment, it's of great importance to take this condition into consideration while designing the bridge.

"As the bridge is in the precautionary area of Level IX seismic intensity, we use corrugated steel web materials on the bridge to lighten load weight of the upper part and alleviate the pressure on the technical structure of the lower part, so as to enhance its capacity to resist quakes. It is the first bridge applying corrugated steel web in areas of high degree seismic intensity in China," said Huang Hua, manager of the Engineering Procurement Construction Project, Hydro China Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited.

Basically, the conventional bridge construction adopts concrete structure, while the corrugated steel web construction method replaces concrete to reduce the weight of bridge body. It could also improve the construction efficiency and shorten the construction period.

The rebuilt Longdongge Highway is specially for the water storage of Baihetan Dam, which is scheduled for 2021. By then, the previous highway will be flooded. So the new highway is about 30 meters higher than the old one on the mountain slope while keeping the same shape of line.

"It took us 21 months to complete the closure, overcoming the tight construction schedule, complicated technical problems and the impact of adverse weathers like high temperature and strong wind," said Huang Hua.

The rebuilt Longdongge Highway is an important passage connecting four cities in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. As a control project, the successful closure of the Xiaojiang Bridge laid a solid foundation for the completion of the whole project on schedule.