Construction of Bengbu Huaihe Railway Bridge

Bengbu Huaihe Railway Bridge is the second bridge on Jinpu Railway after the Yellow River Railway Bridge. The site of this bridge was determined in September, 1908, 10 and completed in May,1911. As we all know, due to the construction of the Huaihe River Railway Bridge, the Jinpu Railway began to pass through the mussels, making Bengbu rapidly develop from a remote fishing village on the border of Fengyang County into a land and water transportation hub in the east, west, north and south. But why should the Huaihe River Bridge be built in Bengbu, a small market town? ..... The Huaihe Railway Bridge is the most difficult in the bridge site selection of the south section of the Jin-Pu Railway. When the Jin-Pu Railway was originally planned, the bridge site was originally planned to be near Huaiguan. 1September, 908, Mr. Ji Jie, the British chief engineer, led engineers and technicians to conduct field investigation in Linhuai, and found that the area around Linhuai was low-lying. When the river overflows in midsummer, the flood will overflow the railway track and affect the normal operation of the railway, thus denying the idea of building a bridge in Linhuai. After investigation and comparison, Deji chose Bengbu, which is about 19 kilometers away from the upper reaches of the Huaihe River. Because of its high terrain, it is not easily affected by floods. Although the river is deep, some difficulties will be encountered in the construction, and the construction time may be extended. But there are hard rock roots at the bottom of the river bed, and the piers are relatively stable. Considering the Millennium plan, it is appropriate to build a bridge here. Unexpectedly, the construction of the bridge in Bengbu caused criticism from local gentry and directors in Huaiyuan county, and wrote to the Qing government to demand the construction of a bridge between Pure Land Mountain and Tuer Mountain in Huaiyuan. After some on-the-spot investigation, Deji thought that the river in the middle of Pure Land Mountain was narrow and the water was swift. It will be several times more difficult to build a bridge here than in Bengbu. After repeated weighing, the final bridge site was chosen in Bengbu. After the bridge site was determined, there was another storm over what kind of bridge to build. At the initial design, the Huaihe Railway Bridge adopted truss bridge.

1908 65438+February, 36 salt merchants in Bengbu jointly wrote to Zhengyangguan Supervision and Marketing Bureau, arguing that the bridge is a fixed bridge, and the bridge opening is low and narrow, and the mast of the salt boat is several feet high, which makes navigation inconvenient. They asked for more bridge opening or the construction of movable bridges to facilitate the transportation of salt. This matter requires the review of the Minister of Conference Office, and it happened that Sun Baoqi, the Minister of Conference Office, was visiting the south and could not decide at the moment. 1February, 909, Sun Baodi Municipal People's Congress sent He Liangbiao, chief inspector of the southern section, to Bengbu for a field trip, explaining to salt merchants that it is not suitable to build a movable bridge in the middle section of the Huaihe River, so we should find another way to kill two birds with one stone. Immediately, a chief inspector was set up in Linhuai Pass, and He Liangbiao was stationed in the organization. Many people disapprove of oversight and the construction of movable bridges. Anhui gentry Zhou and others wrote: "Changhuai silt, dredged by boat. Nowadays, a dead bridge is built halfway, and the ship is too high to pass. Since the air route is impassable, there is no sail for thousands of miles. Without boats, there is no water conservancy, and there is no dredging of water conservancy. There are dozens of counties in the upper reaches, and there must be fish sighs. " Thirdly, please be sure to build a movable bridge. To this end, the Governor of Liangjiang sent a telegram to Sun Baodi, saying that "it's a long way, a long way, a long journey, a common trip, local goods are exported, and salt is shipped out." If the bridge is built, it will hinder the ship, not only the river is silted up, but also the land and water are impassable, which is not suitable for the railway. "After receiving the electricity, Sun Baoqi sent He Liangbiao to investigate with the engineering consultant and Yinglinsen to ensure that the road engineering and navigation services were unimpeded. At the same time, Wang Shutang, general manager of the southern section of the railway, also rushed to Linhuai to meet with local gentry and directors, stating that if the originally designed fixed bridge was changed into a movable bridge, all the planning and preparation work already done would be in vain, not only would it cost a lot of money, but also a large number of foreigners would be hired outside the contract. If you do this, there will be endless trouble.

Now, once the plan is completed and the materials are ready, we can start work. Why do you want to make harmful changes regardless of the importance? If it is really changed, it will affect the whole road. The officials and gentlemen attending the meeting were deeply impressed by this statement. Wang Fengyi, a native of Fengyang, also wrote a letter for this purpose, asking to build a bridge. Who knows that Yinglinsen didn't engage in survey work after arriving in Huaihe River, but only met with the survey engineer Bowen, and immediately returned to Nanjing to report to Duan Fang, urging the construction of a movable bridge. Gleason pointed out that the masts of Huaihe ships have always been erected. If the mast and the vertical mast are released, it will take two or three days at a time. When the mast and vertical mast are put out, it is inconvenient to unload heavy objects. Gleason also pointed out that although foreign countries say it is not suitable to build movable bridges on the main rivers, as long as they are cautious, there will be no great danger. During this period, Huaibei ticket sellers Yuyuan and Baotaichang; Sheng Yuan, Xin Fuyuan and Fang Gao, the lake vendors of Zhengyangguan Chamber of Commerce, also called Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, and strongly opposed the construction of a fixed bridge. They put forward a plan to add Gao Qiao, build an underground tunnel at the bottom of the river and use boats to barge on the north and south sides. Duan Fang, Governor of Liangjiang River, successively submitted calls from all over the country to the Southern Section General Administration, and invited the construction of a movable bridge together with Zhu Jiabao, Governor of Anhui Province, according to the report of British engineer Greenson. 1June, 909 13 (the first year), the Qing court ordered Xu Shichang, the minister of supervision, to make proper plans with Lu Haihuan, Sun Baoqi, Luo and the chief engineer, and then check with * * *, so as to repeat them according to the situation. Please handle it according to law. Xu Shichang, the minister in charge of supervision, sent Chief Inspector Liu Shuping to the field for a new investigation. In July, Liu Shuping was ordered to go south and called on Duan Fang, Governor of Liangjiang, and Zhu Jiabao, Governor of Anhui. Later, I went to Pukou to discuss with Luo and the chief engineer many times. The ethics of the chief engineer has stated the advantages and disadvantages of building a movable bridge in detail, and still insists on building a fixed bridge according to the design scheme. In order to find out the influence of the construction of the fixed bridge on the navigation of Huaihe River, Liu Shuping arrived in Bengbu in August and arrived in Huaiyuan from Bengbu in early September. Together with Li Weiyuan, the magistrate of Huaiyuan County, he called a number of ships at the Huaihe River estuary for field test. During the test, two ships were used to protect one ship, and the mast was put down first and then erected ... from beginning to end, it only took one hour and five minutes.

After the on-the-spot investigation, I specially met with Anhui gentry Zhou and Cheng, who held different opinions, and explained to them in detail the advantages of building a fixed bridge and the disadvantages of building a movable bridge. Finally, people were persuaded by Zhou and agreed to build a fixed bridge. From 1908 to 12, some people raised objections to the construction of the fixed bridge. By the end of 1909, the fixed bridge was ordered to be rebuilt. After a year, dozens of officials, large and small, made field trips in three ways. After repeated comparison and weighing the advantages and disadvantages, the opinion of fixing the bridge was finally decided in two bridge construction schemes. After decades of inspection, it is proved that the scheme of building a fixed truss bridge on the Huaihe River is correct. According to the design requirements, the Huaihe River Bridge is divided into 9 holes, each of which is 200 feet long. The pile length of pier of bridge body is 18 15 feet, and an approach bridge is built at each end. During this period, eight piers were built to support the whole bridge. Frame steel beam for bridge. The bottom of the beam is 35 feet from the highest water surface. There is a monorail on the bridge. When choosing the bridge site, although it has been compared repeatedly, there are many difficulties in the actual construction process. Although the river bottom where the bridge is built is all solid rock roots, the stones at the river bottom are undulating, about 83 feet to 90 feet below the water level, and the stones are covered with thick silt, with the thickest place reaching 70 feet (2 1.336 meters). Only in the middle of the fourth hole and the fifth hole, occasionally stones emerge from the water. Because each pier must be built from the bottom of the stone, the length of each pier is uneven, ranging from 1 10 feet (33.528 meters) to 50 feet (15.24 meters). Counting from the south bank to the north, Pier 1, Pier 2 and Pier 3 are relatively easy to construct because they are close to the south bank, with shallow river body, high stone bottom and not too thick sediment. The fourth and fifth piers are built in the middle of the river, and the construction is very difficult; The sixth, seventh and eighth piers, due to the low stone bottom and thick sand silt, encountered many problems in the middle of construction, and the construction period was delayed again and again. 1, No.2 pier construction, first use giant piles to surround the foundation, and then use large stones to build. Two piers started in June 1909 1 1. Due to the spring flood of 19 10, the work stopped and it took 10 months to complete. Pier 3 is just above the rocky reef, and it is often exposed when the water is shallow. During construction, it is built directly from the boulder, and the progress of the project is relatively rapid. 1909, 1 1 month, 19 1 month. Due to the deep underwater basement, the advanced pneumatic caisson method was adopted for piers 4 to 8. The pneumatic caisson used is divided into an inner shell and an outer shell, and the inner shell is a bell-shaped working cylinder. The inner shell and the outer shell are four feet apart and connected by an I-shaped crossbar. Surrounded by cement, a blower is built in. Start the blower, the airflow will discharge the sand and gravel in the cabinet one after another, and the caisson will also go deep and gradually reach the bottom of the stone chamber. The workers in the working cylinder began to chisel the bottom of the stone to make it concave. Then the caisson will fall into it, and then concrete will be poured layer by layer until it is exposed to the water, and granite will be built at the top to form the pier. The caisson of pier No.7 started in June 1909 1 1, sank in February 10, and sank to the bottom of the stone in March 19 10. Because the flood stopped, it was not until mid-June 1 that a dam was built around it to pump water for masonry. The eighth pier starts in the middle of 19 10+ 1. By May, the caisson had entered the bottom of the stone and was completed in July. The fifth pier is located in the middle of the flood, 30 feet deep at the shallowest part of the river. Rough river bottom. The pneumatic caisson sank to the bottom of the stone in April of 19 10. In July, the floodgate and crane were washed away by the flood, and the excavation work resumed in August, and the concrete filling project was completed in September. 19 1 1 year 1 month. The pneumatic caisson of Pier 4 sank into the river bottom in September 19 10, and was completed synchronously with Pier 5 in June.191. Due to repeated flooding, the pneumatic caisson sank to the bottom of the stone in June 19 1 1, and the whole pier was built at the end of February. All piers are made of granite, and each pier is nine feet thick. The east and west sides are semicircular to reduce the impact of floods. A steel beam is erected on the pier cap, and sleepers are laid on the steel beam. 19 1 1 May, the whole bridge was completed. When the Huaihe River Bridge was built, the track was not paved and opened to traffic to the south of Linhuai, and all the mechanical materials such as ash, stone and steel beam needed for bridge repair were transported to Bengbu by migrant workers from all over the country. At that time, floods occurred in Jiangsu, Anhui and other places, and tens of thousands of civilian workers endured freezing hunger and detoured thousands of miles. Huaihe railway bridge was completed, with 5,556 cubic yards of concrete to build abutment and pier foot; The pier was built with 4074 cubic yards of concrete; Use 385 cubic yards of granite to build pier caps; The stone is 556 cubic yards to build the abutment. In addition, 10600 barrels of cement and 2500 tons of steel were used. Except that the steel beam was purchased from Ritter Hudson Company in Scotland because it could not be manufactured in China, the pneumatic caisson used was manufactured by Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard, and other equipment was also purchased in China. * * * Expenditure is less than 6,543.8+0,000 silver dollars, which is about 6,543.8+0,654.38+0,000 yuan less than the original plan, saving more than 6,543.8+0,000 yuan. Huaihe Railway Bridge started in June 1909+0 1 and was completed in May191,which lasted 18 months. After the completion of the bridge, General Manager Duan, Shi De personally visited the site and unanimously praised the perfection of the project. The Huaihe River Bridge has been built for more than 90 years. During this period, except for two man-made damages, the bridge has been washed away by many floods and has been safe and sound, ensuring the smooth transportation of the north-south railway.