Published : 2025-01-16

On January 16, 1993, China's Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge connecting Jiangxi Province and Hubei Province was completed.

The Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge is a dual-layer, double-track bridge used for both railway and highway. The railway bridge is 7,675 metres long, 900 metres longer than the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, making it the third longest of its kind in the world at that time.

With a total investment of 250 million CNY, it was announced that the preparations should start in 1972 and the construction would start the following year. The bridge was originally scheduled to be fully completed by 1977, but it was later delayed to 1979.

After more than a year of preparation, construction of the bridge officially commenced at the end of 1973, but due to a very difficult national economic situation and insufficient funds, the speed of infrastructure construction gradually slowed down.

By the end of 1979, only 10 piers in the river had been built. The basic engineering of the bridge was completed in 1980, but then it encountered a delay due to the national dispatch of a joint investigation team, which resulted in a reduction of construction speed, with only 8 to 10 million CNY allocated annually for material trials.

In 1984, with adjustments to the national economic construction, the construction plan for the railways on both sides of the bridge was postponed, leading to another shortage of funds.

The State Planning Commission directed the immediate cessation of all work on the bridge. At this point, construction of the bridge came to a complete halt, with almost all workers withdrawn, leaving only a few to conduct maintenance.

Fortunately, later on, construction of the bridge received support from renowned Chinese bridge expert Mao Yisheng (茅以升) and others, allowing its resumption in November 1986. It was even included as part of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway project in January 1991.

Finally, in 1993, the bridge was completed, with the highway bridge opened to traffic. In July of the following year, the track laying of the railway bridge has also been completed, and the bridge became the main artery of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway.