Meijiang Bridge

Meijiang Bridge

Meijiang bridge is the most famous bridge in Meizhou. It was built in the spring of 1934. After the war of resistance against Japan and the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, it still stood at the top of the U-shaped Meijiang river after several repairs and expansion, and became the throat of the north and south sides of Meizhou city. Meijiang bridge, with beautiful and practical shape and arched guardrail, is a landmark building of Meicheng in the early years.

brief introduction

Meijiang bridge is located in the center of Meixian County, Meizhou, Guangdong Province. It is a bridge across Meijiang river, connecting Jiangnan and Jiangbei. In ancient times, there was no bridge here. Pedestrians used bamboo rafts and wooden boats for crossing. During the reign of emperor TAIDING of the Yuan Dynasty, 42 boats were used to erect the floating bridge at meixidu. In the Ming Dynasty, ships were abandoned. In the 14th year of the Republic of China, the floating bridge was rebuilt and then abandoned. In the spring of the 20th year of the Republic of China, the Meijiang bridge was initiated by Rao Fushang, the "Fuji Shantang" and other good directors, as well as local people Huang Rongqiao, Huang xiena, Zeng Hannan and Liu Qilan. It was enthusiastically funded by domestic businessmen and overseas Chinese Liao Yuansheng, Chen Fuyuan, Rao Liebo, Xie Xintai, Mrs. Hou Guangde and pan zhiwo. The construction started in the winter of 1931 and was basically completed in the autumn of 1934. The project cost is 112300 ocean. This bridge is designed by French priest Gong (Engineer). The original design load is 3 tons. It is a reinforced concrete bridge with 11 holes of truss arch, with a span of 20-22 meters. There are four plate beam hole approach bridges, with a span of 10 meters. The substructure is a reinforced concrete double column pier with thin diaphragm, with a length of 278.5 meters and a width of 6.65 meters. Before the founding of the people's Republic of China, the middle carriageway was paved with planks. In 1950, the people's government allocated funds to change the wooden deck into reinforced concrete carriageway. In 1965, 800000 yuan was allocated by the Provincial Department of transportation, designed by the provincial urban construction design institute, and constructed by the highway infrastructure engineering team of the Provincial Department of transportation. The bridge columns were strengthened, the bridge deck was widened, and the superstructure was transformed into a traffic lane (5.8m wide) by using the original bridge piers and abutments, and the sidewalks on both sides were expanded (2m wide each). Add a grade separation approach bridge to the upper bridge slope on the north bank, cross Lingfeng East Road and extend the bridge body for 100 meters. The reconstruction was completed in 1967. The reconstructed Meijiang bridge is about 300 meters long and 12 meters wide, with a load capacity of 10 tons.

In the winter of 1986, after Dongshan bridge was completed and opened to traffic, Meijiang bridge mainly used non motor vehicles and pedestrians.

Meijiang bridge is one of the landmark buildings in Meizhou. It is also the main bridge connecting the north and south of Meizhou city. Especially before the completion of Dongshan bridge in the 1980s, it was the main artery running through the north and south. In 1986, the Meijiang bridge was appraised by the relevant authorities and its service life was up. Motor vehicles were forbidden to pass.

Reinforcement and overhaul project

Meijiang bridge has high historical and cultural value. Due to the long construction time, many damages and diseases, the bridge was identified as a dangerous bridge by the provincial quality supervision station in October 2007 and was completely closed. Meizhou Municipal People's government decided to reinforce and overhaul the Meijiang bridge in a scientific and rigorous spirit and a responsible attitude towards history and future generations after organizing many expert meetings to study and demonstrate, and widely soliciting opinions from all walks of life, including the general public, the villagers and overseas Chinese.

It is understood that the reinforcement and overhaul project of Meijiang bridge always adheres to the principle of repairing the old as before, retains the structural characteristics and architectural style to the greatest extent, and continues the historical and cultural characteristics of Meijiang bridge. The project, with a total investment of 25 million yuan, was officially started in November 2008 and lasted 13 months from December 2009. The municipal government has listed the Meijiang bridge reinforcement and overhaul as one of the "top ten key projects for people's livelihood". It has repeatedly studied and deployed the relevant work of the project construction at the executive meeting of the municipal government and the mayor's office meeting. Liu Rizhi, Li Jia and other municipal leaders have repeatedly visited the site for inspection and guidance, and have poured a lot of effort into the project construction. The Municipal People's Congress and CPPCC have repeatedly organized inspections or carried out special investigations, specially listened to reports on engineering construction, and put forward many constructive opinions and suggestions for engineering construction. The general public, local people and overseas Chinese have made suggestions and suggestions for the construction of Meijiang bridge reinforcement and overhaul project through various forms such as visits, telephone calls and Internet. With the close cooperation of all relevant departments, the majority of project builders have done fruitful work for the smooth completion of the project through careful organization, scientific construction and grasping the progress.

Reinforced Meijiang Bridge

After reinforcement and overhaul, the disease of Meijiang bridge has been eliminated, the structure is safe and stable, and the function of the bridge has been restored. It can meet the requirements of passenger vehicles, two wheeled motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians with less than 12 seats (including 12 seats), and solve the problems of pipeline overhead suspension. This will further improve the traffic conditions of Meizhou City, and further enhance the quality of the city. Meijiang bridge is the first beam bridge in Meizhou with beautiful form and strong structure. The Meijiang bridge after reinforcement and overhaul is the main artery from the north of Meizhou City (Meicheng) to the south of the Yangtze River and the main traffic line of Meicheng.

The story of Meijiang Bridge

Meizhou, a gateway and land and water transportation hub of eastern Guangdong, is adjacent to Gannan and Minxi in the north and Chaoshan in the East. The superior geographical position makes Meizhou a famous commodity distribution center. Therefore, the people of Meizhou hope to build a bridge on Meijiang river.

More than 70 years ago, enlightened people like Huang Rongqiao, Huang xienan, Zeng Hannan, Rao Furong, Liu yaochu and Lu Gengfu in Meicheng mobilized Meizhou people and overseas Chinese to build a few reinforced concrete bridges in Guangdong Province at that time, thus composing a moving chapter of patriotism and love for hometown of Meicheng's villagers at home and abroad.

Huang Rongqiao, Zeng Hannan and others often get together to discuss the construction of the bridge. Huang Rongqiao was a county magistrate in Guangxi in his early years. Later, because he sympathized with the revolutionaries and hated officialdom, he gave up his official post and returned to his hometown Meizhou. Because Huang Rongqiao was resourceful and popular, he visited many important figures in Meicheng. Huang Rongqiao was kind and generous, and regarded repairing bridges and roads as a matter of great pleasure. Zeng Hannan used to be a teacher in a mountain village primary school. In order to avoid the bandits, he came to Meicheng and taught in Shuinan public school. He is honest, steady and generous. He is a philanthropic person, especially enthusiastic about the bridge and road repair in his hometown. Huang Rongqiao, Zeng Hannan and others are determined to build Meijiang bridge to benefit Meizhou people and visitors. After some planning, they decided on the one hand to mobilize the people of Meizhou to carry forward the spirit of patriotism and love their hometown, and try their best to donate money to build the bridge; on the other hand, to make use of the advantages of the hometown of overseas Chinese to mobilize overseas Chinese from Meizhou to donate money. Therefore, Peng Jingyi, the head of Meixian County (now Meixian District of Meizhou City), and the promoters immediately set up the preparatory group for the bridge construction, and immediately started the work.

In Meicheng in October, the sky is high, the clouds are light, and the autumn wind is cool. It's a good time for construction. On October 26, 1931, the construction of Meijiang bridge officially started. At that time, the construction of reinforced concrete bridges on a big river was unheard of not only in Meicheng but also in eastern Guangdong, and it was probably rare in Guangdong Province. This fully shows the diligence, courage and wisdom of the Hakka people. At the beginning of bridge construction, there was a serious shortage of funds, and the construction equipment was extremely backward. In order to ensure the quality of the project, Huang Rongqiao had to order the project to be postponed. So he sent Zeng Hannan to Shantou to consult his former friend, father Gong, a French engineer in Shantou. According to rough calculation, it will take about 120000 yuan to complete such a large project, which is an astronomical number for Meizhou. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the project, the preparatory group ran around and appealed to everyone to make a pledge. Before and after that, more than 8000 people donated money. Various businesses and shops have also lent cement and steel to the bridge construction preparatory group on credit. When the funds failed to meet again, Huang Rongqiao introduced the loans from such firms as de Daxing, Jin Shengzhuang, and Huang Changyuan, and received a pledge from Chen Jixuan, the Secretary General. At the same time, he wrote a letter to mobilize overseas Chinese from Meixian County (now Meixian District of Meizhou City) to make a pledge. As a result, Mrs. Hou Guang raised more than 12000 yuan in Nanyang, and Pan Zhi, who came back from visiting relatives in the East, donated 15000 yuan. In order to praise Hou Guangfu and pan zhii for their contributions to Meijiang bridge, the bridge construction preparatory group specially wrote praise for them. In Java bar City, Yan Luoying drama club held a benefit performance, and donated 2100 yuan to the preparatory group. In addition, the overseas Chinese in Nanyang helped the preparatory group to issue three lottery tickets in Nanyang. Apart from awarding prizes, they actually got Dayang 21223 yuan. They sent all the money to the preparatory group. With the joint efforts of all parties, the Meijiang bridge was finally completed in 1934. After the completion of the bridge, a stele pavilion was built at the north end of the bridge. The photos and names of the main donors who built the bridge were inlaid on the pavilion, so as to let the later generations down and forever aspire to merits and virtues. Later, however, the pavilion was destroyed and the stone was lost. In 1991, the Meizhou Municipal People's government finally found the relevant information about the construction of the bridge through various efforts, so it allocated funds to rebuild the stele Pavilion on the west side of the South Bank of the bridge according to the original stele content for later generations to look forward to.

The original Meijiang bridge is 278.5m long and 6.65m wide, with 13 holes. It is a multi arch arc reinforced concrete bridge. At that time, there were only wooden boards in the middle of the bridge deck. At the two ends of the bridge, there were stone stairs. Pedestrians could not walk up the stairs. In 1950 and 1965, the people's Government of Meixian County (now the people's Government of Meixian District of Meizhou City) twice spent money to pave the concrete bridge deck and expand the sidewalk, and to build an approach bridge of grade separation to enable it to pass vehicles. The newly repaired Meijiang bridge is 300 meters long and 12 meters wide, making it even more majestic and spectacular. What people see today is the expansion in 1965. one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five

Chinese PinYin : Mei Jiang Qiao