29 January 2014 - HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE

HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE

G'day folks,

Here is another amazing world landmark - HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE in China.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the largest bridge ever built in China, the bridge links Shanghai to Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, cutting the traveling distance between the two port cities by 120 km and driving time from 4 to 2 hours. 

The 10 billion yuan, S-shaped bridge will shorten the ground distance between Ningbo and Shanghai. Its completion will add two records to bridge construction history. Around 36 kilometers in length, it will be the longest trans-ocean bridge in the world. It will also have been the most difficult to construct.

The Hangzhou Bay is a gulf in the East China Sea where one of China's natural wonders, the Qiantang River Tide, creates fast water and large waves. The area is also a typhoon prone zone. These factors made construction feasibility a major concern for the project and the plan was only finalised after nine years of consultation and over 120 technical studies with the help of more than 700 experts from throughout the world.

The cable-stayed bridge design was selected for the project as it can withstand the adverse conditions, multi-directional currents, high waves, and geologic conditions at the site. The bridge structure has also been designed to seismic criteria and will retain integrity in earthquake conditions up to seven on the Richter scale.

The 36km length will be of highway-class road with six, 3.75m lanes, three in each direction. The overall width of the bridge will be 33m. The roadway grade at cross-slope will be 2% and a maximum 4% at longitudinal slope.

Designed for 100 years of service life, the bridge has speed limits of 100km/h for the main spans and 120km/h for land approaches. The bridge has a height of 62m, enabling fourth and fifth generation container ships to pass through in all conditions. The total length of cable used in the project will be 32.2km.

There will be a service centre on this expressway. Mid-way through the bridge, a service island will be built for cars to turn off the road for rest, food, hotel, top of the line conference room, a lookout tower shaped like a ball and a wide-range of services. The island is actually a platform resting on piers, thus it will not impede the normal sea current in the Bay.

Now, watch a video on it's construction:

HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE 

Clancy's comment: Mm ... I am amazed at what humans can create - good and evil.

I'm ...

Think about this!