The Jiaxing-Shaoxing Sea Bridge ( zh, s=嘉绍跨海大桥, t=嘉紹跨海大橋, p=Jiā Shào Kuà Hǎi Dàqiáo), sometimes shortened to Jiashao Bridge, is the world's longest and widest multi-pylon cable-stayed bridge. From end to end, it stretches across the

Qiantang River The Qiantang River (), formerly known as the Hangchow River Postal Map Romanization, or Tsientang River, is a rivers of China, river in East China. An important commercial artery, it runs for through Zhejiang, passing through the provincial c ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

, at

Shaoxing Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the south ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The main bridge is long and wide and carries an expressway with eight traffic lanes. Construction started December 2008, and the toll bridge opened for traffic on July 20, 2013. Jiashao is the second sea-crossing bridge built in the greater

Hangzhou Bay Hangzhou Bay is a funnel-shaped inlet of the East China Sea on the middle eastern coast of Mainland China, bordered by the province of Zhejiang to the west and south, and the municipality of Shanghai to north. The bay extends westwards to its ...

area. It is about west of the longer

Hangzhou Bay Bridge Hangzhou Bay Bridge () is a long highway bridge with two separate cable-stayed bridge, cable-stayed portions, built across the mouth of Hangzhou Bay in the eastern coastal region of China. It connects the municipalities of Jiaxing and Ningbo in Z ...

, which opened May 2008, a half year before construction began on the Jiashao.

Design

As with the

, the design of the Jiashao had to take into account the raging

tidal bore A tidal bore, often simply given as bore in context, is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay's cu ...

and swift current of the

estuary. To roll with the famous Qiantang tidal bore and to reduce the construction risks under difficult hydrologic conditions, the substructure foundation design for the southern and northern bridge approaches called for the elimination of the traditional

pile cap A pile cap is a thick concrete mat that rests on concrete or timber piles that have been driven into soft or unstable ground to provide a suitable stable foundation. It usually forms part of the deep foundation of a building, typically a multi-sto ...

and the use of a single pile and flexible column type with a large pile diameter of 3.8m and a very long pile length of 111m. This presented a relatively small water-blocking area for the 150 piles, which had a small influence on hydrology and avoided the risk of cofferdam construction from the tidal bore. For the main six-pylon bridge foundation, the large pile cap was moved down to below the mud surface of the riverbed, thus presenting only the single pylon column tied directly to the pile cap as the water-blocking area of each of the six main pylons of the cable-stayed bridge. The main multi-span cable-stayed bridge is long from abutment to abutment and is mostly supported by six tall pylons, each with two sets of two-plane harps of cable stays to sustain two box-girder carriageways, one on either side of the pylons. The two box-girder carriageways are tied transversely to one another for stability and rigidity throughout the length of the main multi-span bridge, with a total main bridge steel box-girder deck width of carrying eight lanes of traffic. The bridge crosses the estuary of

, from the banks of north-east Shaoxing northward, making landfall south of Jiaxing. Shaoxing is located about 200 km from Shanghai. This bridge will provide a more direct route for vehicle traffic between Shanghai and Shaoxing. The bridge is intended for motorists travelling above speeds of 60 miles per hour; vehicles with a maximum speed of less than 45 miles per hour are not allowed to cross. The Jiashao Bridge was given the IRF Award in 2016 and the FIDIC Award of Special Merit for 2017.

Sources

Jiaxing-Shaoxing Cross Sea Bridge (Documentary) 嘉绍大桥
Wang, Rengui, engineer, is interviewed in this 2018 video, with English captions.
scmp.com

References

{{Authority control Bridges in Zhejiang Bridges completed in 2013 Cable-stayed bridges in China

Design

See also

Sources

References