In winter, the Yellow River bridge deck is cold and windy, and the frozen steel girder bridge is full of frost, and they wear headlamps to "grope" in the dark box girder bridge. Under the bridge are beam boxes, and there are many partitions in the beam boxes. Inspectors walk inside and cross the "fence" every 3-4 meters, and they have to cross 312 hurdles after each inspection. Every time the "hurdle" is 40 cm high, it looks easy, but after walking for a long time, the legs begin to involuntarily lower the height, and the more you walk, the more you feel strenuous. Although every worker wears a hard hat, the top of the hat is full of potholes, which is the mark left by the intimate contact with the steel member above the head during the "hurdle".
In winter, the Yellow River sparkles and flows into the distance. Located at the junction of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, the 1,200-meter-long Yellow River Bridge of the Nantongpu Railway is like a steel giant, holding the train on the line with its arms and speeding past.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Jingang, wearing yellow overalls, and his co-workers started their day's work. The Nantongpu Railway is an important passenger and freight passage connecting Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, and there are 22 employees in the Huashan Bridge and Tunnel Maintenance and Repair Work Area of the Xi'an Public Works Section where Zhang Jingang is located, who are responsible for the daily inspection and maintenance of the Yellow River Bridge. During the Spring Festival, a number of passenger trains were added to the line, and they raced against time to overhaul equipment and protect the safety and smoothness of the main arteries.
When I went inside to check today, I basically couldn't see the light! "The Yellow River Railway Bridge runs trains on the top, and the huge steel beams at the bottom are composed of steel structure "small houses". Zhang Jingang and his co-workers came to a half-meter-high checkpoint, opened the cover, and leaned into it in turn. Walking into the inside of the beam, it was pitch black in front of me, and the joints of the beam boxes were like panes extending into the distance. Holding a strong flashlight, the light seems to be absorbed by a huge black hole, and gradually weakens, and people walking in it are like walking into a distant space-time tunnel.
In the dark and empty box girder bridge, the inspection hammer is equivalent to our 'stethoscope', which checks whether the beam bolts are loose, falling off and cracking by tapping. With the light of the headlamp, Zhang Jingang walked in the forefront. From the top bolts to the side bolts, the tens of thousands of screws in the box can't escape his "fiery eyes".
The Yellow River Bridge is the key equipment of the whole line, and during the Spring Festival, they need to conduct a comprehensive inspection of 80,000 bolts, 3,408 sleepers, 6,816 bolts and 96 bearings to ensure that the bridge is in good condition.
When knocking, pay attention to the sound, the sound of the bolt is crisp, and the bolt that is slightly loose, the sound is a little muffled......Zhang Jingang struck the bolt with an inspection hammer while saying to Wei Xiaolin, an apprentice beside him. From the iron plate under the foot to the ceiling overhead, the bolts are densely packed, and each bolt needs to be struck 2 to 3 times at different angles, and 1,000 bolts need to be struck tens of thousands of times. They struck one by one, not missing one.
To do this work, you must endure loneliness, as soon as you enter, you can't see the light, and you stay for most of the day. Zhang Jingang said. In winter, the Yellow River bridge deck is cold and windy, and the frozen steel girder bridge is full of frost, and they wear headlamps to "grope" in the dark box girder bridge. Under the bridge are beam boxes, and there are many partitions in the beam boxes. Inspectors walk inside and cross the "fence" every 3-4 meters, and they have to cross 312 hurdles after each inspection. Every time the "hurdle" is 40 cm high, it looks easy, but after walking for a long time, the legs begin to involuntarily lower the height, and the more you walk, the more you feel strenuous. Although every worker wears a hard hat, the top of the hat is full of potholes, which is the mark left by the intimate contact with the steel member above the head during the "hurdle".
In 1992, Zhang Jingang came here from the demobilization of the army and became a bridge and tunnel worker, climbing the bridge and going up the mountain every day to maintain equipment. More than 30 years have passed, and he has also changed from a young man to an old worker. Over the years, Zhang Jingang obviously felt that his legs and feet were not as sharp as they used to be, "In the past, the 'hurdle' could be passed by leaning over, but now the old arms and legs, for the sake of stability, you have to use your arms to support the horizontal board first, and then the body will continue to pass."
Master, I'll go up and see the bolts on the top of the box girder, don't go up. "The bolts overhead are not visible from the bottom, so you have to climb up with the help of a ladder to check them. The apprentice felt sorry for the master, and without waiting for the master to speak, Wei Xiaolin took the ladder from the master's hand and went up a few times.
Look at the bolt again and tighten it! Zhang Jingang kept admonishing beside him. With the sound of "da-da", Wei Xiaolin took a lithium battery wrench to tighten the bolt. And Zhang Jingang, who was standing below, was not idle, and began to check the bolts near the surface of his feet again.
Now the equipment is much better, and it turns out that the old bridge maintenance tasks are several times more than this! Zhang Jingang said that in 2019, China Railway Xi'an Bureau Group implemented a hardware transformation of the Yellow River Bridge of the Nantongpu Railway, transforming the original old-fashioned steel beam structure into a box girder structure, which greatly improved the safety of the equipment.
Wei Xiaolin was assigned here in 2011, and he still remembers the first time he went on the bridge with his master, "Seeing the river under his feet, the whole person was terrified." Zhang Jingang said that Wei Xiaolin did a good job, "and quickly became the business backbone of the team in a few years."
The maintenance under the bridge is busy, and the train on the bridge is busy. Whenever the train passed by, there was a muffled thunderous sound overhead. The inside of the bridge is cold and dark, which makes people feel very oppressive. The Yellow River Bridge is located in a remote area, and they usually take steamed buns and mustard vegetables to eat a simple meal at noon, and when they are tired, they lean on the "door railing" of the steel partition to rest for a while.
After 7 hours of "night walking", Zhang Jingang and his colleagues finally completed the inspection task of the bridge equipment that day. Opening the lid of the beam box and seeing the "long-awaited" sunshine again, they couldn't help but take a sharp breath of fresh air. In the distance, another train full of passengers approached, about to cross the Yellow River Bridge. The passengers on the train will not know that there is such a group of people under the bridge who are constantly moving forward and working hard in the dark, guarding the bridge under their feet and the railway under the wheels and rails for them.
Yu Hai, Li Ke, Ma Yuyang, Tian Fengli, China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Zhou Wei.
*: China Youth Daily).