Fuchimen Bridge, the world's first trans-oceanic bridge which was built with ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) wet joint technology, was opened to traffic recently. Located in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, Fuchimen is a cable-stayed bridge with double towers and single cable plane combined with girder. Spanning 670m with a total investment of CNY 1.62 billion (around USD 230 million), it is a fast track connecting Ningbo-Zhoushan Expressway and No. 329 National Highway.
The Bridge constitutes one of the Main Passage Projects of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, a key project dedicated to the 70th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China that will be the world's longest island-connected expressway and the world's largest trans-oceanic bridge groups. This is of great significance to the development of the booming economy in the greater Yangtze River Delta. The UHPC Wet Joint Technology used in Fuchimen Bridge project was supplied by the UHPC Innovation Team of the Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials, Ministry of Education. UHPC wet joint technology has greatly improved the construction efficiency of assembly of the trans-oceanic bridge by 42%, reducing the construction period by 110 days, thus reducing the number of typhoons crossing and greatly reducing the offshore construction risks. The high-strain reinforced UHPC invented by the Team was industrialized under the trade mark of TENACAL and supplied to the construction project of Fuchimen Bridge. The Team has also published a number of influential papers on UHPC in top-tier journals. The unique multidisciplinary advantage of material science and structural integration enabled the Team to effectively promote the industrialization and application of UHPC in the booming coastal area of Eastern China.
FANG Mingshan, alumnus of Tongji University and currently Deputy Chief Engineer of Zhejiang Transport Investment Group Co., Ltd, led the construction of Fuchimen Bridge with UHPC-based rapid construction technology. He is the initiator of the technical specifications for construction with UHPC technology, the organizer of an international symposium on bridge rapid construction technology during which UHPC attracted greater attention, the principal investigator of a provincial research project on the use of UHPC in bridge construction.
The internationally advancedhigh-strain reinforced UHPC materialwas produced by Zhejiang TENACAL New Material Technology Co., Ltd and developed by the head researcher Prof. WANG Junyan of Tongji University. This independently developed material with world-class innovativeness has been applied to over 100 projects, includingYuanjiahe Bridge in Shanghai, the world’s first highway bridge built entirely with UHPC precast beams. This practice set a rolemodel of academia-industry cooperation.
UHPC Team on Fuchimen Bridge
Fuchimen Bridge Open to Traffic
Source (in Chinese): https://smse.tongji.edu.cn/info/1010/3678.htm
