The G109 Zongjia–Golmud East road improvement is a 202.9-kilometre project linking Zongjia Town in Dulan County with the southern side of Golmud. Its crossing of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was described by Qinghai’s highway bureau as a control project, with both technical difficulty and railway-safety coordination. In April 2024, drilling began for the main piers of the rotating bridge, opening the project’s railway-related construction phase.
From the journal
A 70-Degree Turn Above the Qinghai–Tibet Railway
A bridge on the Zongjia–Golmud East road project was designed to rotate across an active railway after being built beside the line.
Built beside the railway
A bridge that turns into place
The T-shaped bridge was designed with two 50-metre prestressed cantilever spans on either side of its main pier. After the structure was cast using full-support scaffolding, the bridge body would rotate clockwise by 70 degrees to cross above the railway. The reported sequence brings the engineering into view: first build the heavy structure beside a live rail corridor, then coordinate a controlled turn over it. Before the main works, railway communications cables and power lines affected by construction were moved, and a railway company was assigned safety-protection work.