A love that builds bridges

The Jinfeng Wujiang River Bridge, which is scheduled to open later this year.[Photo provided by Liu Yelin/For China Daily]

Construction pair finds romance can overcome the greatest challenges, Li Yingxue and Yang Jun report in Guiyang.

A key bridge, part of Guiyang-Jinsha-Gulin expressway, will be load tested in March and provided all goes well will shortly afterward open to traffic.

The Jinfeng Wujiang River Bridge in Guizhou province saw its construction phase end in July. It presented a challenging task to engineers as it spans the Wujiang River, a place plagued by strong gusts for at least 100 days a year.

Two years ago, the location was an empty valley with no electricity or public utilities. Li Zhao, 42, chief engineer of the fourth branch of Guizhou Road and Bridge Group and his wife, Qin Guifang, also Li's colleague, successively led 1,200 construction workers to overcome the difficulties and build the bridge.

The couple in the past nearly two decades have participated in and witnessed the incredible change in the transportation network in Guizhou, which has helped residents enjoy better lives.

"When I was studying in college, it took me 16 hours by train to travel from Guiyang to Changsha. The experience made me firmly believe that I must bring my professional knowledge back to Guizhou," Li says.

Li and Qin at the construction site of the Guangzhou Xinguang Bridge in Guangdong province in 2004.[Photo provided to China Daily]

He is glad to see that now it only needs less than three hours by high-speed rail to travel from Guiyang to Changsha, and Guizhou has achieved the goal that every county has a highway and each village has hard roads.

Li met Qin when they were both studying civil engineering at Central South University in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, in 2000. As both were from Guizhou, they took part in the same classes and extracurricular activities. Gradually cupid played a role.

Li recalls that after they got together, they supported each other in study and life.

"And luckily, we have the same goal, which is to make our hometown better with our professional knowledge."

In the past, traveling to Guizhou was difficult due to its mountainous terrain and poor economic conditions.

To connect the remote province with the rest of the world, building bridges was deemed crucial.

Li Zhao and his wife, Qin Guifang, at the bridge construction site last year.[Photo provided to China Daily]

With more than 90 percent of its surface area being mountains and hills, Guizhou presents some of the most challenging conditions to develop a sound transportation system.

In 2004, the couple graduated and both took positions in construction.

"We have made up our mind that we will take part in the development of the transportation industry at our home place, and let our province become as convenient to access as other provinces," Li says.

Following their company's "going out" strategy, the couple took part in the Guangzhou Xinguang Bridge project in Guangdong's Guangzhou and the Xiaolan Bridge project in Zhongshan. All the while they were learning and accumulating valuable experience.

In 2008, the couple went back to Guizhou and worked on different projects. Their goal of developing their hometown officially set sail.

In the bridge and road construction project in Wuchuan county, Li designed a set of steel-structured arch frames. Stronger and lighter, they were of huge benefit.

Li's design also standardized construction of a reinforced concrete bridge.

He founded a technical research and development team to find more efficient ways of construction to ensure safety and quality and accumulate experience of construction in the mountainous area.

Li (right) greets a reporter from China Daily last year.[Photo provided to China Daily]

At the same time, Qin used an innovative technique to solve the problems in highway maintenance in Guizhou and extend the service life of the roads.

Qin also led her team to design special construction methods such as fulfilling the visualization and 3D simulation of a whole bridge.

"There are not two bridges that are the same," Qin says. She thinks each time she designs a new bridge, she will face new problems and challenges.

Besides working on the front line of construction, the couple also spent time on research of various new construction techniques and both have become experts of the Guizhou Highway and Transportation Society.

"We worked on various construction projects, learning and gaining experience under the guidance of a group of skilled masters. From a regular technician to a key member of the breakthrough team, and then to the project's chief engineer, the two of us have kept learning and growing," Li says.

The couple has spent more time apart than together, but their relationship has become firmer.

"When he is in other provinces working, I work and take care of our family at the same time and both our parents help. As people working in the transportation field, the mutual support of family members is quite important," Qin says.

Li thinks Qin is a responsible person in both work and life. "To find a qualified construction plan, she would work in front of the computer for two days and nights," Li says. "She also takes good care of both our parents and child."

Since 2020, Qin has devoted herself to the construction of Jinfeng Wujiang River Bridge and later, Li also joined in the building of the bridge. The couple once again joined hands to work on the development of their hometown.

Jinfeng Wujiang River Bridge, with its main tower standing at 650 meters, is 230 meters above the river. Qin was the chief engineer of the bridge, and she knows every detail about the bridge.

According to Qin, the difficulties of the construction of the bridge include the high standard for environmental protection, the large number of components needed when assembling the bridge and the difficulty of transporting the main truss.

"The bridge is less than 2 kilometers away from the red line protection area of the Yangtze River, so the environmental protection requirements are quite high. We have set the special construction plan for environmental protection, and our construction trash disposal strictly followed the rules of transportation and placement," Qin explains.

"The construction of the bridge may not have been the most challenging aspect, but the assembly and installation of the steel truss structure required a high level of precision and accuracy," Qin says.

Qin led her team to achieve the successful assembling and packing of the steel truss beam, overcoming challenges including the high risk of aerial work, the heavy-weighing hoisting work and accuracy control.

"I'm responsible for the frontend engineering of the bridge and the next part is Li Zhao's work," Qin says. From the start of construction to the bridge's completion, it only took 20 months for Qin and Li's team.

Each time Qin gets near the bridge, she can't help taking out her phone to take a photo of it. Li also feels proud to participate in the transportation construction of their hometown.

"The romance for other people is in the bustling city, but the romance for us who build bridges, it's among the mountains and hills," Li says.