The east and west anchorages of the Shiziyang Link were completed on Thursday, paving the way for the follow-up erection of catwalks and main cables for the mega project spanning the Pearl River estuary in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

　　Completion of the anchorages, critical load-bearing components of a suspension bridge, marks a milestone in the construction of the entire project, said Zhang Xiaolong, chief engineer of the anchorage project of Shiziyang Link.

　　"An anchorage consists of a foundation, anchor body and anchorage system, and it serves to anchor the bridge's main cables and withstand the tensile force transmitted from the main cables," Zhang told reporters on Thursday during the project's media open day.

　　Shiziyang Link features two anchorages, east and west, rooted on opposite banks in Shatian town of Dongguan and Nansha district of Guangzhou, he said.

　　To enhance the bearing capacity of the anchorage foundations, the project team developed an innovative composite anchorage foundation structure featuring circular rock-socketed diaphragm walls, inner liners and rigid top-and-bottom slab connections, Zhang said.

　　The team also developed an in situ test system for assessing the bearing capacity of deep rock and derived general calculation formulas for bearing capacity and displacement.

　　"The outcomes bridge technical gaps and offer key references for super-long-span suspension bridges and deep, large foundation pit projects," he added.

　　Wen Jie, an engineer with the project engineering management department of Guangdong Transportation Group, said Shiziyang Link, with a main span of 2,180 meters, is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2029, with traffic expected to begin soon after.