Beipanjiang Bridge wins international award

The Beipanjiang Bridge wins a gold Gustav Lindenthal Medal at the 35th International Bridge Conference. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The Beipanjiang Bridge, designed by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)'s Highway Consultants Co and constructed by CCCC's Second Harbor Engineering Company, recently won a gold Gustav Lindenthal Medal at the 35th International Bridge Conference.

The conference, held by the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, is a globally influential academic meeting on bridges.

The awards given at the conference were initiated in 1988 and the awards ceremony is held on a yearly basis. Among them, the Gustav Lindenthal Medal, dubbed "the Nobel Prize in the bridge sector", is granted to bridges with excellent practicality, technology, materials, design and public participation.

The 1,341.4-meter-long bridge is located at the border between China's southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou.

The vertical distance from the bridge floor to the Bepan River surface is 565 meters, making it the world's tallest bridge.

The central span of the steel arch cable-stayed suspension bridge is 720 meters, and is the second largest span of its kind in the world.

The project started in 2012 and was completed on Dec 29, 2016. Its completion shortens the driving time between Xuanwei in Yunnan province and Guizhou's Liupanshui from five hours to only one.