Why is there only one dragon column on the Yan 'an viaduct in Shanghai?

This is a miracle story about the elevated road, which is almost a household name in Shanghai. It's been passed down for twenty years.

The origin of the legend: can't the pile at the intersection be knocked down?

In the mid-1990s, the construction of elevated roads in Shanghai was in full swing. After the Inner Ring Road was completed and opened to traffic, Chengdu Road Elevated (North-South Elevated) and Yan 'an Road Elevated, which run through the urban area, were launched one after another, forming a "Shen" pattern running through Shanghai. Unexpectedly, the project reached the key intersection of the east, west, north and south viaduct, but the foundation pile as the main pillar could not be driven down.

As a result, the previous saying of praying to God and worshiping Buddha was quietly circulated on the construction site. You may delay, but time will not. It's better to have a move than not to have one. What's more, try it. Even if it doesn't work, it won't hurt much. Later, I hired a Shanghai mage. After the mage finished the ceremony, the stake was divided. It is said that because of enlightenment, the mage returned to the temple and died in a few days. The pillar was then surrounded by Bai Gang and decorated with dragon-shaped ornaments as a prayer to the gods who helped pile driving successfully.

How did that pile get into more than 60 meters deep? Zhang Geng, a bridge-building expert, seems to have dispelled people's doubts: I led a team to shoot down that pile of things.

Zhang Geng, 1943, from Jurong, Jiangsu. 1959 Shanghai Qinye Middle School. He has served as the captain of the 11th and 12th construction teams of Shanghai No.1 Municipal Engineering Company, and participated in more than 70 large and small bridges such as nanpu bridge, Wusong Bridge, Zhenbei Road Interchange, Yan 'an East Road Elevated, Yan 'an Middle Road Elevated, etc. In the tough battle of Shanghai's municipal construction, he took the lead, gnawed hard bones and made outstanding contributions, and was known as "the star of bridge building" and "the king of bridge building".

The following is Zhang Geng's specific explanation:

-This pillar at the intersection can be said to be a pillar, because it has to support two elevated roads and a four-story pavement, and it is also the main pillar of the Shencheng elevated "Shen" center, which requires high technology. According to the design, the diameter of this main column is 5 meters, and 36 steel pipe columns need to be drilled underground. Each steel pipe column has a diameter of 90cm and a length of 64m. According to the construction requirements, these piles will be driven to a depth of more than 60 meters underground.

However, the piling construction team hired by the contractor at that time was only good at building piling and had no experience in driving such dense columns. There are some shortcomings in the construction scheme and technology. As a result, when this piling construction team hit six piles in the first batch, it encountered a hard geological layer, and no matter how hard it hit, it just couldn't go on. Some piles can only be driven above 10 m, and the deepest pile can only be driven to 4 1 m, and none of them meet the design standards.

The construction encountered great difficulties, and the contractor asked the Shanghai Municipal Design Institute to change the design, which was rejected by the design institute. At this time, we are also working in Shanghai Zhengyi Company, which crosses Suzhou River in the northern section, and have already driven 98 piles with the same thickness. The design institute turned to us for help, and under the coordination of the Chengdu Road Elevated Construction Headquarters, the piling work of the intersection column was handed over to us for construction.

-I took the team and took three measures in the construction. First, pile with an 8-ton hammer; Secondly, water is poured continuously during piling to play a lubricating role; Third, hammer continuously 18 hours to ensure the continuous deepening of the pile. After changing the construction scheme, it took us only one month and five days to finish driving all 36 piles. Complete the construction of Chengdu Road viaduct node to ensure smooth traffic. It can be seen that the final penetration of piles depends on scientific modern technology, not geomantic metaphysics.

There are at least thousands of main columns under the north-south viaduct. Why is there only a carved pattern on this main column?

At that time, the viaduct on Chengdu Road and Yan 'an Road was designed by Shanghai itself. A main column with four "T-shaped piers" on four sides supports so many grade interchanges, which solves the problem of land occupation in the central city. But the corresponding price is that this central column is particularly thick. Designed as a "Big Mac" with a diameter of 5 meters, a height of 32 meters and a pile foundation length of 62 meters.

It is precisely because this pillar is too thick, on the one hand, it is not very beautiful at an empty intersection, on the other hand, it may also bring visual obstacles to drivers and affect driving safety. Therefore, at the same time as the column construction, the decoration of the column has also been put on the agenda, becoming the only decorative column on the Shanghai viaduct.

Zhao, sculptor and former vice president of Shanghai Oil Painting Sculpture Institute: The dragon carving is just for decoration.

No one set any rules for me when designing the decorative sculpture of the column. Whenever I have time every day, I will go to the construction site to feel it. Suddenly one day inspiration came: Isn't this elevated road a dragon in Shanghai, running day and night? So I named this creative work Longteng Wan Li Sun and Moon.

Because the column is more than 30 meters high and the elevated roads are staggered in the middle, when designing and building the relief, I first designed the floor plan and then wrapped it around the column. In fact, if you look closely, there are more than nine dragons on the pillars, and there are many large and small ones; In addition, there are other elements such as phoenix, sun and moon.

I chose the dragon only because this pillar is in the most important position on the Shanghai viaduct. It holds such a heavy thing. The rumors of ordinary people are all related or out of curiosity. But in short, they are all "folk jokes" and have no factual basis. No one set any rules for me when designing the decorative sculpture of the column. Whenever I have time every day, I will go to the construction site to feel it. Suddenly one day inspiration came: Isn't this elevated road a dragon in Shanghai, running day and night? So I named this creative work Longteng Wan Li Sun and Moon.

This is the legend of Shanghai Yan 'an Elevated Dragon Column, which is widely circulated on the Internet. The truth is still inconclusive, but it is widely circulated among the people. Just read stories and watch entertainment, don't take it seriously!