Magnolia-shaped lamps will be reinstalled on the Yangtze River Bridge that is being revamped and will be re-opening to traffic in the coming month. The bridge, spanning the Yangtze River in urban Nanjing, was closed for a 27-month repair in October 2016.
Professor Chen Qing, the person in charge of the cultural relic design of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, said that according to the research, the magnolia-shaped lamp on the bridge was a stereotyped product of Beijing Civil Lighting Factory, which was modeled after the magnolia lamp in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
This repair will retain the body of the street lamp artifacts to the maximum extent, repair the old as the old by restoring the original appearance of the magnolia-shaped lamp, and extend the service life of the street lamps.
Construction workers will choose different repair materials and methods for different situations. After that, all the lampposts will be sprayed with a colorless and transparent repairing waterproof material to enhance its structural strength and durability.
The lamp base will be slimmed once again based on the style and material of the previous revamps. The bulbs will also be replaced from the previous high-pressure sodium lamps into LED lamps which are more energy-efficient and has a longer-life.
At present, 80% of the repair on magnolia-shaped lamps has been completed. It is expected that in the end of October, all magnolia lanterns will appear on the bridge with a new look.
The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is a double-decked road-rail truss bridge across the Yangtze River between Pukou and Xiaguan in Nanjing, China. Its upper deck is part of China National Highway 104, spanning 4,588 meters. Its lower deck, with a double-track railway, is 6,772 meters long, and completes the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, which had been divided by the Yangtze for decades. Its right bridge consists of nine piers, with the maximum span of 160 meters and the total length of 1,576 meters. The bridge carries approximately 80,000 vehicles and 190 trains per day.
The bridge was completed and opened for traffic in 1968. It was the third bridge over the Yangtze after the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and the Chongqing Baishatuo Yangtze River Bridge. It was the first heavy bridge designed and built using Chinese expertise.
（source:ourjiangsu.com）
