The young guardian of the Yellow River Special Bridge of the Baoxi Railway: "playing" the song of youth with 280,000 bolts

On January 19, in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Kan Xudong, dressed in overalls and wearing seat belts, walked on the Yellow River Special Bridge of the Baoxi Railway, more than 20 meters above the Yellow River. On one side of him is the railway track, and on the other side is the frozen ice surface of the Yellow River. The bitter cold wind whistled. In the winter of minus ten degrees Celsius, in a short while, Kan Xudong's ears and cheeks were blown red, and his snot also flowed.

Kan Xudong is a bridge maintenance worker in the Baotou Road Bridge Area of the Baotou Engineering Section of the Hohhot Bureau of China Railway, and he and his co-workers are responsible for the maintenance and repair of 39 large and small bridge and culvert equipment. On the same day, the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network followed them to the Yellow River Special Bridge for equipment maintenance.

One of the key points of the inspection was the 72 pier supports at the bottom of the Yellow River Special Bridge, and Kan Xudong drilled into the bridge hole, which was only a few tens of centimeters wide, and stepped on the bolts to the pier. The height of the pier space is less than half a meter, and Kan Xudong can only lean sideways against the ground, use the detection hammer to strike bolt after bolt, and "play" a jingling "symphony" on the Yellow River. He used sound to discern whether the bolt was loose or not, "it is normal for the sound to be muffled, and the crisp sound indicates that it is loose."

There are also piers that have to go down through ladders. More than a dozen steps of ladders hang vertically at the junction, and when climbing, the water of the Yellow River penetrates from the gap between the ladders. Every time you climb a few steps, you have to untie the seat belt and then tie it to the appropriate position, and when the reporter is interviewing, because he can't undo the seat belt for a while, he is nervous to the point that his legs are trembling.

There are a total of 280,000 high-strength bolts on the Yellow River Special Bridge. During the twice-weekly overhaul, they "play" tens of thousands of bolts. Most of the time, the "playing" takes place late at night, with the silent Yellow River being the only listener.

With a total length of 3918 meters, the Yellow River Special Bridge is an important passenger and cargo transportation channel in central and western Inner Mongolia. During the Spring Festival, almost every ten minutes, a train will roar past.

Before each train passes, the protector Fu Shuoyu will receive a call from the station liaison officer, who uses the walkie-talkie to inform the workers to "descend the vehicle to enter the scene, pay attention to avoidance", and then he blows the horn and raises the yellow flag to prompt the vehicle to move slowly, and everyone hides in the shelter to avoid the car. In order to facilitate the answering of the phone, despite the severe cold weather, Fu Shuoyu did not like to wear gloves, and his hands were frozen and swollen.

As the train passed, a roar sounded, and the stone slabs under his feet trembled, making the soles of his feet tingle. When climbing to the top of the steel beam more than 30 meters high from the ice surface for maintenance, the vibration of each train passing will be doubled and magnified, which is frightening. He Long, who was only wearing a seat belt, occasionally poked his body out of the bridge body to check the bolts underneath.

After graduating from Baotou Railway Vocational and Technical College, Bai Yuehe entered this public works section. Bai Yuehe, who has a fear of heights, recalled that when he first went to the bridge, his legs were weak, he bent over the stone pillar, and walked slowly against the inside, "Everyone waited for me, no one thought I was slow, affecting the progress." It took about half a year for him to get used to this height and start his first attempt to climb off the pier. He felt that he could not always hide behind his co-workers, "this is my job after all." This year is the fourth year of work for Bai Yuehe, 24, who is now "still afraid" when he sees the raging Yellow River water on the bridge.

Replace the nearly 100-pound walking board, brush the paint, clean the rust stone... Bai Yuehe said that this job has its own hardships throughout the year, the summer is hot and exposed, the spring and autumn are scraped with sand and dust, the face is full of soil, the winter is inconvenient, and the wind blows pain. Bai Yuehe was wearing a sweatshirt "dotted" with various colors of paint, and he laughed: "This is a DIY graffiti limited model." ”

Since the start of the energy supply battle, Inner Mongolia, as an important national energy base, trains loaded with 10,000 tons of coal have departed from Ordos City and passed through the Yellow River Special Bridge of the Baoxi Railway; more than 30 passenger trains to Shanghai, Chongqing and other directions will also pass through the bridge. He Long, the foreman, described their work as laying the foundation to ensure the smooth and safe operation of the train. He Long said that the high-speed rail train speed is fast, and the "10,000-ton train" carries a heavy load, which requires higher requirements for the daily state of the bridge and the loss is also greater, "Since the Spring Festival, we have worked busier and the pressure has been greater."

When the stressful, heavy work is over, they will think of ways to relieve their fatigue. Born in 1997, Shao Jinggang likes to play table tennis. Fu Shuoyu, who has long hair, changed into wide-legged jeans, rhubarb boots, played the guitar, and Yan Zhen, who likes to sing, became the lead singer, and they adapted the lyrics of "Blue Lotus" and named it "Yellow River Bridge", "The wind of the Yellow River hurts the face, the wind of the Yellow River is smooth, I carry it, the responsibility of the road and bridge workers, and I will never be confused in my heart from now on..."

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Shi Jia Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily