Construction Underway On World’s Highest Bridge

In Guizhou Province, southwestern China, construction of a dizzyingly tall bridge is nearing completion, further expanding the country’s impressive list of towering overpasses and engineering marvels.

According to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge will be the highest in the world upon completion.

With 625 meters separating the bridge deck from the Beipanjiang River below – the equivalent of two Eiffel Towers – Huajiang will be around 60 meters higher than its nearest competitor.

The 2,890-meter-long bridge will form part of a motorway connecting Liupanshui City with Anlong County, and will reportedly cut travel times across the canyon from around an hour to just one minute.

Construction began in 2021, and the last main tower was completed in October 2023 after over 670 days of work, according to project manager Wang Chaoguo, cited by Xinhua.

The main structure is expected to be finished by the end of 2024, with the bridge set to open in early to mid-2025.

According to Alimak, a Stockholm-based firm which provided construction hoists for the project, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge has faced “distinctive challenges” during its construction.

“Being in a plateau region intensifies atmospheric temperature differences between day and night, leading to the likelihood of severe convective weather and consistent valley winds throughout the year,” Alimak said.

Since the Great Wall’s construction approximately 2,000 years ago, China has been renowned for its ambitious building projects, and now hosts some of the 21^st century’s most impressive feats of engineering.

The 128-storey, 632-meter-high Shanghai Tower is the world’s third tallest building, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and its unique twisted design allows the skyscraper to endure the city’s tumultuous weather patterns.

The Three Gorges Dam in China’s Yangtze River is the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity at 22,500 megawatts, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

China is also home to the world’s other highest bridges, many of them in the same mountainous province as the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge.

According to Highestbridges.com, a website run by engineering fans and dedicated to the subject, the top 17 highest bridges in the world are in China, eight of these in the Guizhou Province.

In 2003, the Beipanjiang Guanxing Bridge in Xingbeizhen became the highest bridge in the world, with 366 meters separating the bridge deck from Beipan River.

Since 2016, the Beiapnjiang Duge Bridge has held the title.

Only 200 miles north of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in Zhenfeng County, the Duge Bridge sits 565 meters the deepest point of the Beipan River.

Construction is also underway on a 610-meter high bridge near the China-Myanmar border.

Upon its completion, scheduled for 2027, the Yongchang crossing’s 1,416-meter-long deck, will rank second only to Huajiang in lists of the world’s highest bridges.

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