Chapter 337 Crossing the Sea

Chapter 337 Crossing the Sea

Chapter 337 Crossing the Sea
8 month 15 day.

With the last floating island bridge being towed from the shipyard in Zhoushan Islands, it means that the Haitan Island-Baishaga Cross-sea Bridge project has entered the final stage.

This 130-kilometer-long cross-sea bridge took only eleven months from project approval to near completion, with only nine months of construction time.

This kind of large floating island bridge requires a floating island platform every five kilometers. A total of 26 floating island platforms are arranged on the Haitan Island-Baishaxia Cross-sea Bridge.

The floating island platform in front of us is the floating island platform numbered Haibai No. 13, which is also located in the sea area in the middle of the strait.

Many managers of the construction unit were on the floating island platforms that had been installed on both sides. They watched the floating island platforms being pushed little by little by the barges, with both happiness and nervousness on their faces.

Jiang Weiguo, the project supervisor, shouted over a high-powered walkie-talkie, "Old Huang, tell the barge to slow down. This is the last minute, don't let anything go wrong."

"Okay." A hoarse middle-aged male bass voice came from the intercom.

The project leader Ai Zhefu put down the telescope and said, "Don't be too nervous, Supervisor Jiang. This project is the easiest one I've ever worked on since I started working in the large-scale engineering industry."

How could it not be relaxing? Jiang Weiguo silently complained in his heart.

The only on-site construction required for this new type of floating bridge is the construction of the shore connecting bridges and service areas on both sides of the bridge.

Even the arrangement of fixed facilities on the seabed to fix the cables does not require the help of the construction unit. Instead, a special cement ship is used directly, and a large amount of special cement, sand and stones are placed on the cement ship.

When it reaches the designated location, the sea valve is opened to allow the cement ship to sink to the bottom of the sea. After the special cement inside the cement ship is submerged by sea water, it will quickly solidify and become heavier.

Each floating island platform generally requires four cement shipwrecks as fixed anchor points. After each cement shipwreck sinks to the bottom of the sea, its weight can reach 4 tons.

The floating island platform, together with the 5-kilometer-long railway bridge and highway bridge, has a total weight of approximately 60 tons.

The anchor point of the cement shipwreck comes with a special cable, which only requires an engineering auxiliary ship to use a robotic arm to pull the cable up from the seabed and then connect it to the floating island.

The reason why the floating island’s own cables and anchors are not used is because of the need to quickly release the cables.

If a special situation occurs and the anchoring cable needs to be disconnected urgently, the staff will definitely not be able to go down to the seabed to work, and can only operate on the floating island. This requires that the anchoring cable must be able to be released on the floating island.

Of course, the floating island has four emergency anchoring cables, which are similar to the anchor system of a large oil tanker and can be used for temporary mooring in other sea areas.

Ai Zhefu turned his head and looked at Xia Yanxin, the deputy project manager who had just finished a phone call: "Yanxin, what did the headquarters say?"

"The headquarters asked us to complete this project as soon as possible. Three months later, we will start the Ryukyu Islands Cross-Sea Bridge project."

Ai Zhefu took a sip of mineral water and asked, "Did the company win the Ryukyu Islands Cross-Sea Bridge project?"

"Well, but this project is a bit more difficult. It is estimated to take about four years." Xia Yanxin picked up the iced watermelon beside him and took a few bites to quench his thirst after talking on the phone for half an hour.

"Of course." Ai Zhefu knew the length of the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge.

The Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge starts from the south side of Kyushu Island in Japan, passes through the Ryukyu Islands, and ends near Keelung Port on Tainan Island. It is 1176 kilometers long, and there are some relatively deep waters along the way.

After swallowing a mouthful of the cold watermelon flesh, Xia Yanxin asked in confusion: "I thought we would win the Penghu Islands Cross-Sea Bridge project in the south, but I didn't expect it to be won by Kaohsiung Engineering Group."

"Haha, do you think all the benefits went to our family?" Aizhefu smiled and shook his head.

"That's right." Xia Yanxin also reacted, but he smiled strangely: "It's useless for them to take over this project. After all, the bulk of these cross-sea bridges are not taken by engineering companies like us."

Ai Zhefu naturally understood the implication of Xia Yanxin's words.

Now, the engineering companies that contract cross-sea bridge projects make money from the construction of supporting facilities on both sides of the bridge. The profit margin of the main body of the bridge is very low because the main body of the bridge is purchased from the four major special construction groups.

Currently, there are only four companies in the Asian Consortium that have the capability to build floating bridge platforms, namely: China Railway Ocean Bridge Corporation, Minqin Offshore Engineering Company, Asia Road and Bridge Corporation, and China State Construction Offshore Engineering Group.

For example, the Haitan Island-Baishaga Cross-sea Bridge has floating island platforms supplied by China Railway Construction Haiqiao Group. Each floating island platform includes the railway, electrification equipment, cement anchor ship, etc. The price quoted by China Railway Construction Haiqiao Group is 15 billion yuan, which is an average of about 3 million yuan per kilometer.

In other words, the 130-kilometer main structure of the Haitan Island-Baishaga Cross-sea Bridge will cost a total of 390 billion yuan.

The company that contracted the project quoted a price of 450 billion yuan for the entire project, and their gross profit was approximately 10 billion yuan.

This is the pitfall of civil engineering.

You should know that the gross profit of each floating island platform built by China Railway Construction Haiqiao Group is only about 5%.

Minqin Group and Hailufeng Group, as the sources of technology, are the real winners. For each floating island platform produced, they have to pay the two companies about 2700 million yuan in related patent fees.

Therefore, neither Hailufeng Group nor Minqin Group contracted the cross-sea bridge construction project, but served as suppliers.

In fact, the engineering company that contracted the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge project is much more cunning than other companies.

The reason is very simple.

For projects like the Haitan Island-Baishaga Cross-sea Bridge, the profits are actually eaten up by the floating island suppliers and the technology research and development companies at the source, leaving their engineering companies barely able to make a living.

But the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge is different, because it needs to pass through many islands along the way, so it is definitely necessary to build supporting projects on the islands along the way. This means that there are more projects in the project that need to be built on-site, which can increase their profit margins.

Of course, since this is being built in the waters of the Ryukyu Islands, this project will definitely require cooperation with local Japanese companies, such as handing over some parts and materials, as well as railway equipment, trains, etc., to Japanese companies for production.

This is also an inevitable choice for win-win cooperation.

As Aizhef said, the benefits cannot be taken away by one family alone.

As a community of interests, even if Seris is the leader in the Asian Union, it must respect the interests of other members. Only in this way can the internal situation be more stable.

...

"Burp..." Xia Yanxin burped, picked up a tissue and wiped the corners of his mouth that were stained with watermelon juice. He suddenly remembered something:

"Boss Ai, I heard that the railway section of the Ryukyu Islands Cross-Sea Bridge will use a vacuum tube maglev railway. Why doesn't this bridge use it?"

"You're thinking too much. This bridge is only over 130 kilometers long. Why build a vacuum tube maglev railway? Is there enough money?"

"But I heard that this kind of railway is very fast, it can reach a speed of one thousand kilometers per hour."

"Haha, one thousand kilometers per hour is correct, but you have to consider the distance between the two stations."

"Distance between stations?" Xia Yanxin frowned, and then he was puzzled: "No! If the distance between stations is to be considered, then the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge project will have many stations."

Ai Zhefu picked up the telescope and looked at the slowly moving floating island, then asked confidently: "Do you believe it, the railway part of this project only has two stations?"

"What? Two stations? This..."

"The vacuum tube maglev train must consider passenger flow and economic effects. Kaohsiung and Kagoshima prefectures on both sides have huge populations, but how many people are there in the Ryukyu Islands in the middle?"

Xia Yanxin picked up his phone and searched for information. It was just as Ai Zhefu said.

The total population of the Ryukyu Islands is only about 145 million, and as an archipelago, the population is very scattered, so it is not worth setting up a train station in the middle of the way.

On the contrary, Tainan Island has a population of 2300 million, Kyushu Island has a population of 1200 million, and with the completion of cross-sea bridges between the Japanese archipelago, plus the Tsushima Strait Bridge.

The entire Northeast Asia region has a total population of nearly 1.8 million, and Tainan Island is connected to the East Asian mainland via a cross-sea bridge, or to the Luzon Islands to the south, and also has a large population.

Only when there is population can there be passenger flow.

That is why Ai Zhefu is so confident that the railway section of the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge project will only have two stations.

This is also the helplessness of the vacuum tube maglev railway.

If the running distance is not long enough, this type of railway will not have a speed advantage.

For example, if this cross-sea bridge in front of us, which is more than 130 kilometers long, is built into a vacuum tube magnetic levitation railway, even if only two stations are set up, it will be difficult for the train speed to exceed 600 kilometers per hour.

This is not a problem with the equipment, but the distance does not allow it.

The train needs acceleration distance and braking distance, but in the vacuum tube, due to the lack of air resistance and track friction resistance, the train must brake in advance at a very long distance to ensure that the train can stop safely at the station.

The distance is more than 130 kilometers. If you drive at a speed of 600 kilometers per hour, the whole journey is estimated to take about half an hour.

If you drive at a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour, including the acceleration and braking stages, it will take more than 20 minutes.

Therefore, this speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour does not seem to be very cost-effective.

Train speed becomes more valuable only when the distance between stations on both sides of the vacuum tube becomes longer.

Based on the railway distance of the Ryukyu Islands Cross-sea Bridge project, the entire journey will only take about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

This is nearly nine times the distance of the Haitan Island-Baishaxia Cross-sea Bridge, but the one-way travel time is only three to four times different.

The longer the distance between stations, the more cost-effective the vacuum tube maglev railway will be.

In fact, the areas most suitable for the application of vacuum tube maglev railways are projects such as the East Asia-North America Pacific Cross-Sea Railway, the Australia-South America Pacific Cross-Sea Railway, and the North America-Europe Atlantic Cross-Sea Railway.

The railway lines of these projects often start at several thousand kilometers. For example, the straight-line distance between Shanghai and San Francisco is about 9900 kilometers.

A vacuum tube maglev railway at this distance can even increase the train speed to 2,000 kilometers per hour, and it only takes about five hours to cross the east and west coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

There is no need to use vacuum tube maglev railways for short-distance railways, especially in densely populated areas like Seris and Japan, where stations are densely distributed along the way. If vacuum tube maglev railways are used, the train speed cannot be increased at all.

...

Before we knew it, the sea to the west was filled with the sparkling glow of the sunset.

The last floating island platform, pushed and pulled by a group of barges, finally docked steadily at the designated location, and then the floating island platform deployed a cable-stayed bridge to both sides.

The moment when the bridge decks on both sides come together precisely.

clap clap clap...

Everyone at the scene applauded spontaneously.

The TV interview team, who had been waiting for a long time, did not miss this scene. Several cameras and high-altitude drones captured the key scenes of the entire process. Then they began intensive editing in the temporary camp on the floating island next door.

As for the interviews and stuff, they have actually been completed at noon today, and we are just waiting for the final part of the footage.

On the Haibai No. 12 floating island platform next door.

Ai Zhefu and others also held a celebration party for all the employees.

There is a large space in the middle of each floating island platform. After all, if you look at it from another angle, this floating island platform is a giant ship, and there is no cargo transported on it, so the space is naturally very large.

In fact, after this cross-sea bridge is put into use, these floating island platforms will need to be manned by professional personnel, especially the dozen or so floating islands in the middle of the bridge, which not only need to be manned, but also require the construction of special service stations and maintenance stations.

Haibai No. 12 is the location of one of these service and repair stations.

Although it has not been put into use, some basic infrastructure has been installed, including water, electricity, and internet services, as well as toilets, bathrooms, staff dormitories, restaurants, and the like.

The chef at the construction site brought out dishes one after another.

There are mouth-watering chicken, braised goose, grilled lamb chops, garlic scallops, fried dried shrimps with garlic, steamed taro with pork ribs, Kung Pao chicken, fish-flavored eggplant, chicken mushroom pork ribs and corn soup, lobster balls, blanched choy sum, hand-shredded cabbage, and candied sweet potato.

Looking at the dazzling array of dishes on the dining table, Ai Zhefu picked up a bottle of iced black tea and said, "Although the project is almost completed, it is still under construction, so I will use tea instead of wine. Cheers!"

"cheers!"

Others also took a sip of their favorite drinks.

"Come on, you're welcome."

"Boss Ai, you are joking. We won't be polite."

“This lobster ball is good.”

"Of course, this is made of real lobster, not starch balls."

After a while.

The interview team also came to eat.

They did not think that the work meals of the construction unit were luxurious. Nowadays, chicken, duck, goose, lamb chops, seafood and the like are very cheap in China and ordinary people can buy them easily.

Bu bu bu…

A melodious whistle sounded from the sea not far away.

The lighthouse on the floating island has already turned on its guiding light, and is communicating with passing ships through the maritime department's system.

Although the distance between the floating islands is more than four kilometers, and the bottom of the bridge deck is 100 meters away from the sea surface, even super-large transport ships can safely pass through the bridge hole.

But this is no reason to take it lightly.

If you encounter a crazy ship driver who does not follow the rules, you must discover and notify the other party in time so that they can avoid the ship.

(End of this chapter)