Hehe, this question can be either very broad or very narrow—truth be told, I’ve never actually tallied it up. I did a quick search on Baidu, but couldn’t find many satisfying answers.

The annual class reunion is always a lively affair, and listening to my classmates chat away is truly a treat for the ears.

All my college classmates graduated from the Railway Institute, and after graduation most were assigned to state-owned enterprises such as China Railway Group, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, and China Communications Construction Company, where they primarily work on highway and railway construction projects. Whenever we get together, the topic that comes up most often is the development and construction of China’s highways and railways—each of us can rattle off details with remarkable familiarity, recounting them in vivid, engaging detail that leaves me utterly captivated.

In recent years, China’s transportation infrastructure development has advanced by leaps and bounds, capturing worldwide attention. For even the most intractable dead-end sections of the road network and the most challenging stretches, we now possess the capability to straighten out winding routes—carving paths through mountains and building bridges over rivers. Amidst our awe and admiration, we cannot help but feel proud of our nation’s ever-growing strength. At this very moment, I am filled with the urge to sing aloud: “I love you, China!”

China’s builders have achieved countless world-firsts, filling the Chinese people with pride and astonishing the world. Reflecting on this, I found myself eager to ask numerous questions about railway construction. For example: How are highway and railway piers erected? How is the girder between two piers cast and formed? And how are railway and highway bridges over major rivers constructed? Finally, how are tunnels built?

Each and every one of you students is truly talented and well-versed; after all, experts are experts. You all provided me with the most professional answers, using the most professional language. My feelings can be summed up in three words: exhilarating, enjoyable, and admirable!

Let’s start with railway and highway piers. Railway piers are predominantly hyperbolic in shape and include hollow piers, solid piers, and sloped piers, among others.

Municipal pier and column structures are generally complex, featuring numerous curved surfaces and irregular geometries, resulting in almost no design commonality across different cities due to varying local architectural styles.

The design of formwork for irregular pier columns must give greater consideration to both constructability and structural rationality. In other words, the concrete placement for all types of pier columns relies on the construction of pier column formwork.

The construction of highway and railway bridges over major rivers is inseparable from cable-stayed formwork baskets. Formwork baskets are the primary equipment used in cantilever construction and, according to their structural configuration, can be classified into truss types (including flat-chord types without counterweights, diamond-shaped, triangular, and bow-string types) and cable-stayed types. ( Including triangular cable-stayed and prestressed cable-stayed types. ) , steel-section type and hybrid type 4 species. Based on the requirements of the concrete cantilever construction process and the design drawings for the launching gantry, a comprehensive comparison of the characteristics, weight, types of steel used, and construction techniques of various gantry configurations is conducted to determine the final structural configuration of the launching gantry. The launching-gantry construction method does not occupy any roadway at all and requires no interruption of traffic on the main or auxiliary roads; instead, by means of the gantry’s movement, the cast-in-place concrete box girders are formed within the gantry itself, with construction personnel carrying out each concrete placement. 2-4 Once the girder has been cast and the bridge deck has hardened to sufficient strength, the hydraulic system will advance the launching gantry, after which a new segment of the girder will be cast.

Design principles for the hanging basket include: light self-weight, simple structure, robustness and stability, ease of forward movement and assembly/disassembly, high reusability, minimal deformation under load, and ample clearance beneath the basket to provide a large working platform, thereby facilitating reinforcement and formwork operations.

Therefore, large-scale engineering projects involving extensive spans—such as major rivers and seas—are all constructed using cable-stayed formwork systems.

Tunnel The construction of tunnels is inseparable from concrete lining carriages, which are essential non-standard equipment for secondary lining in tunneling operations. These include simple lining carriages, fully hydraulic self-propelled lining carriages, and truss-type lining carriages. Fully hydraulic lining carriages can be further classified into side–arch types, inverted arch types, vertical wall types, and full-circle needle-beam types.

Whether it’s bridge formwork, cable-stayed girder hanging baskets, or concrete lining trolleys for tunnel construction, none of these can be realized without the support of a robust manufacturing enterprise. In China, there is such a renowned company: many state-owned enterprises have established long-term strategic partnerships with it, and it even played a key role in China’s first “Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Railway” project. Furthermore, this company has been involved in infrastructure projects along the Belt and Road Initiative, providing various types of bridge formwork, static load testing rigs, and embedded components for railway concrete girders ( China Railway Construction Corporation (Certification review approved.) What do you say—is this company awesome or what? I’d say it’s absolutely outstanding!

After all this talk, which company are we actually referring to? Let me tell you: it’s Dongfeng Shijing Formwork Group Co., Ltd., whose predecessor was Beijing Dongfeng Shijing Formwork Group Co., Ltd.