About sixty kilometres north of Aquiva is Viaremontes, a small town where a raging river runs through it: the Picomayo River.

This river, which originates in the Andes, is one of the main tributaries of the right bank of the Paraguay River. The river was also the first major river encountered on the way back to Santa Cruz from Yacueva.

Viamontes is located at the foot of the Andes, and the northern end of the city has even been built into the eastern foothills of the Andes. The Picomayo River gushes out of a mountain pass in the Andes and in less than 10 kilometers it widens from less than 50 meters wide to more than 300 meters wide.

The river in the city of Viamontes is slightly better, only about 500 meters wide at its widest, but as the Picomayo River goes downstream, it gets wider and wider, and in some places it is even more than two kilometers wide!

In fact, there are three other rivers that start from the Picomayo River and go north that are very similar to this one, all of which are narrow and flow in the mountains, but which quickly widen once they break through the pass. Therefore, a good investigation of this Picomayo River will be of great help to the other three rivers in the future.

To build a railway bridge, of course, the narrower the river, the better, and in general, it is best to build a bridge in the area where the river is most stable. But here, the experience of building bridges is difficult to use, because the terrain here is so special.

Not to mention the large difference in the drop of the river, and the course of the river is still subject to change. If there is too much rain in the mountains in a given year, the huge flow of the river will inevitably change part of the river after it breaks out of the mountain pass, even if the embankments are built on both sides of the river. The huge flow of water and the large drop were enough to wash away these embankments made of boulders. In fact. In the southern part of Villamontes, there have been many tragic incidents in the history of the city that have been flooded by the diversion of rivers.

Later, Viamontes spent a lot of money on the south bank of the Picomayo River to build an extremely strong embankment, which allowed the southern city of Viamontes to be safe for more than 20 years, and the railway bridge from Santa Cruz to Yacueva was built within the protection of this embankment.

This railway bridge is just a monorail railway bridge. And the load capacity will certainly not be enough to meet the capacity requirements of the new railway, so a new railway bridge will need to be built over the Picomayo River.

As the deputy general manager of the project department of Huagong International in Bolivia, Comrade Lao Fang is very proficient in this aspect, after all, he started as a technician, in terms of technology and foundation, if he wants to say that the entire project department is the second, no one dares to admit the first.

"Old house, how about building a railway bridge in this area?" The old house has been studied on the south bank of the river for a long time. Not to mention Chris, even Tang Feng was a little impatient to wait.

"How so? This section is not bad, it is protected by this embankment, as long as there is no accident in this section of the embankment, then the railway bridge is not a big problem. As for the middle of the river, there are several large sandbars upstream of the area where the piers were built, which are safer than the embankment. However, once the levee is washed away. Although it will not affect the bridge, the safety of the railway line will not be guaranteed! Lao Fang said with the white paper full of lines and symbols. There was also a look of embarrassment on his face.

Lao Fang is right, as a professional, there are many things to consider, not only the safety of the bridge itself, but also the safety of the two sections of the railway line of the bridge.

Tang Feng looked to the north, and less than four kilometers to the north were the mountains of the Andes. It was from there that the Picomayo River rushed out of a mountain pass.

"I said the old house, why don't we go upstream and take a look?" Tang Feng pointed to the location of the mountain pass and said, "In the area where the Picomayo River has just come out of the mountain pass, I think the geological conditions should be better than here, after all, it is a mountainous area. Most of them are made of rock. ”

Lao Fang smiled, took out a detailed map of the local area, pointed to the area and said, "Mr. Tang, in terms of geological conditions, it must be the best, but look at the terrain near this mountain pass." This area is actually a recessed col, and the entire northern part of Viamontes is sunken into the mountains along with the terrain. If we build a bridge from upstream, we can guarantee that the geological conditions are fine, but another problem will be constrained. Don't forget, after our railway is repaired, it will eventually run a heavy-haul train, a heavy-haul train is often hundreds of wagon marshalling, the length is 1,500 meters up, if the bridge is built at the upstream mountain pass, then the whole railway will turn a big bend here, the ordinary train is good to say, but the heavy-haul train is obviously not good, the bend is too big, the speed must be reduced, and the slope is not small, I am worried that the locomotive will not be able to stand it. ”

Hearing this, Tang Feng was a little speechless. There's no way, people are experts, but Tang Feng still said with some reluctance: "I said the old house, if it doesn't work, let's go up and have a look, it's not far anyway, what if we can find a good place?" ”

Lao Fang smiled and said, "Okay, let's take a look upstream, maybe we can find a better location than here." ”

There is a small road right next to the river that leads to the Highway 11 bridge in the upper pass of the Picomayo River. This road bridge is built at an altitude of more than 500 meters above sea level, which is the narrowest area of the river and the best geological conditions. It's okay to build a road bridge from here, but it's not okay to build a railway bridge, not to mention the curve, and the slope alone won't allow the train to climb up.

The group arrived at the road bridge, which spans the entire length of the mountain pass, and below the bridge is the fast-flowing Picomayo River, from which you can overlook the whole of Viamontes.

After looking at the bridge for a while, Lao Fang shook his head and said: "It seems that the location just now is the best, although the location of the mountain pass has the best geological conditions, but the railway can never be built, but the light rail can be repaired."

Tang Feng laughed, "Build a light rail from here?" It is estimated that we will have to wait for ten or twenty years, and when Bolivia has money, maybe a sightseeing light rail will be built here. Not to mention, the scenery here is really nice. ”

Tang Feng said as he walked off the bridge, and began to climb down a hill towards a hill, and said loudly as he climbed: "You wait for me for a while, I'll go up and enjoy the scenery and come down!" ”

Tang Feng likes to climb mountains, and they all know this very well, including the bears, and now the tyrants are interested again, so they can climb it.

The hill is not too high, and within ten minutes, Tang Feng climbed up slowly, but the scenery here is obviously much better than the style he saw on the bridge just now, and Tang Feng, who was standing on the top of the mountain, laughed.

As a result, as soon as he laughed twice, a rumbling sound sounded from the ground, followed by a shaking of the mountains (to be continued......