China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) announced that the country has set a new world record by replacing a section of a railway bridge in hours without disrupting normal rail traffic.
According to the CRCC, this performance surpassed the previous record of about 12 hours. The company stated that there was nothing else like it in the world and emphasized that the work to replace the bridge was carried out at a time when the railway was not being used.
This achievement demonstrates China’s efficiency and technological capabilities in rail infrastructure. The bridge replacement project has achieved unprecedented efficiency through the use of an intelligent machine called Taihang, named after the Taihang Mountains that separate north and central China.
China uses fast and effective technology in rail transport
Taihang is a collapsible device that can be transported by rail, and as explained by Wu Jingpeng, senior engineer in charge of the project at the China Railway Fifth Survey and Design Institute Group, it can be “rebuilt” on site.
This technological innovation was key to the success of the bridge replacement in a record time of just four hours and without disrupting regular rail traffic.
According to the CRCC, the machine is not only highly efficient, but also the world’s first railway bridge replacement machine. Their debut was to replace a worn section of the bridge on the ShuoHuang Railway Line in north China’s Hebei Province.
By the end of 2022, China had an operational length of its state railways of 155,000 kilometers. Many of these existing railway lines have been in operation for many years, some are over a century old and have a lifespan of more than 50 years.
According to the company, more than 40% of the railway bridges in the country have been in service for over 30 years.