Of all types of bridges in China, the arch bridge holds the leading role with its greatest variety and largest magnitude. And especially, arch structure is widely used for highway bridges. The statistics from all the sources available shows that around 70% of highway bridges are arch bridges. China is renowned for its mountains with an abundant supply of stone. So, stone has been used as the main construction material for arch bridges. The Wuchao River Bridge in Hunan Province, for instance, with a span of 120m, is the longest stone arch bridge in the world. However, China's reinforced concrete arch bridges are unparalleled in the world for their various forms and styles.

 Wuchao River Bridge, Hunan Province

Most of the arches used in our country fall into the following categories: box arch, two-way curved arch, ribbed arch, trussed arch, and rigid framed arch. The majority of these structures are deck bridges with wide clearance, and it costs less to build such bridges. Box arch is especially suitable for long-span bridges. The longest stone arch ever built in China is the Wujiang Bridge in Fuling, Sichuan Province, whose span is as long as 200m. The project over the Yangtze River in Wan County, Sichuan Province with a spectacular span of 420m will set up a world record in concrete arch literature when it is completed. 

 Fuling Wujiang River Bridge, Sichuan Province

A unique and successful improvement of reinforced concrete arch, the two-way curved arch structure, which originated in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, has found wide application all over the country, thanks to its advantages of saving labour and falsework. The largest span of this type goes to the 150m-span Qianhe River Bridge in Henan Province, built in 1969. 

Qianhe River Bridge, Henan Province

Trussed arch with light dead weight performs effectively on soft sub-soil foundations. It has been adopted to improve the composite action between the rib and the spandrel. On the basis of the truss theory, a light and congruous reinforced concrete arch bridge has been gradually developed for short and medium spans. Through prestressing and with the application of cantilevering erection process comes into being a special type of bridge known as "cantilever composite trussed arch bridge". An example of this type is the 330m-span Jiangjie River Bridge in Guizhou Province, which is still under construction at present. When completed, the bridge will be the largest arch bridge in China. The Little South Gate Bridge, situated in Yibin City, Sichuan Province, is a half through ribbed arch bridge with a span of 240m, the longest of its kind. With a simplified spandrel construction, the rigid framed arch bridge has a much better stress condition on the main rib by means of inclined struts, which transfer to the springing point the force induced by the live load on the critical position. In Wuxi (a city in Jiangsu Province), three such bridges with a span of 100m each were erected in succession across the Great Canal. Besides, quite a number of ribbed arch bridges have been erected, either with tie arches or with Langer's girders.

Little South Gate Bridge

Along with the construction of reinforced concrete arch bridges, researches on the following topics have been carried out: optimum arch axis locus, redistribution of internal forces between concrete and reinforcement caused by concrete creep, analytical approach to continuous arch, and lateral distribution of load between arch ribs. Besides, design approaches to various types of arch have been formulated and revised. The erection of composite precast reinforced concrete arch bridges can now be controlled. The construction of combined abutment with its design theory has been introduced, which is adaptable to the building of arch bridges on soft subsoil foundations.

In addition, modern techniques have been attained that may solve the problems arising in bridge construction. In building arch bridges of short and medium spans, precast ribs are used to serve as temporary falsework. And sometimes, cantilever paving process is used. Large span arch bridges are segmented transversely as well as longitudinally. With precast ribs, a bridge can be erected without scaffolding, its components being assembled, complemented by cast-in-situ concrete. Also, successful experience has been accumulated on arch bridge erection, particularly the erection by the method of overall rotation without any auxiliary falsework or support, which has proved feasible and successful.