Hangzhou Bay Bridge, China

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND STRUCTURE

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.