At around 13:00 on June 23, the 196-meter-high main pillar (No. 6) of the Jinyanghe Bridge was capped as the last concrete pouring was completed, setting a new height record for the world's tallest rigid-frame pier bridge.

　　Jinyang County is one of the seven counties still stuck in poverty in Sichuan Province. Due to local narrow terrain and frequent geological disasters, the local government chose a new county seat which is more suitable for living and development. The old and new county seat is separated only by a river, 1,500 meters apart as the crow flies. However, because there was no bridge, it took more than one-hour drive to get to another place, which was very inconvenient. Locals were all looking forward to the construction of a bridge.

　　After nearly four years of preliminary exploration and examination, the construction of the Jinyanghe Bridge began in November 2017. With a total investment of RMB 339 million, the bridge adopts the span structure of prestressed continuous cast-in-place box girder continuous rigid frame. The bridge body is 757.5 meters long, and the deck is 238 meters above the river bed. Three of the eight piers are located at the canyon, all over 100 meters high.

　　Currently, continuous rigid frame bridge is one of the most common bridges. According to Zhong Chuanjian, senior engineer of Sichuan Highway Planning, Survey, Design and Research Institute, as Jinyang is a poverty-stricken county, at the designing period, they considered saving costs as much as possible. After comparing a variety of schemes, they chose this bridge model with mature technology and low cost. "If we choose cable-stayed bridge or suspension bridge, it will cost RMB 200 million more and the maintenance cost will also be high," said Zhong.

　　In addition to the complicated terrain of deep and steep canyon, the local seismic intensity is also high, and thus the bridge must be able to resist possible earthquakes with a magnitude of 9. In order to make the bridge span the river smoothly, the three piers over 100 meters in height are concrete-filled steel tube lattice piers independently developed by Sichuan Highway Planning, Survey, Design and Research Institute, which can reduce the dead weight and at the same time increase the bearing capacity. The No.6 main pier is 196 meters high, equivalent to a 65-store building, 13.5 meters higher than the highest pier of Labajin Bridge of the same type along the Ya'an-Xichang High-speed Railway.

　　When building the bridge, the Road and Bridge Project Department of Sichuan Railway Investment Group Co., Ltd. has developed a number of cool technologies to overcome safety risks and technical difficulties. For example, the automatic multi-function lifting system developed by the department can realize synchronous operation of steel pipe installation, C80 pouring, and steel-encased concrete structure and diaphragm construction, which can shorten the construction period by three months, and easily lift the 45-ton steel tube to the top of the pier.

　　The Jinyanghe Bridge is expected to be completed in 2021 and will become an important section along Line 356 of the National Highway, which will facilitate cross-straits transportation in Jinyang County, improve regional traffic and promote the development of poor areas.