The future bridge over Qingdao Bay in north-east China will connect the island of Huang Dao with the town of Qingdao.
At the same time, the bridge is part of a motorway link from Qingdao to Lanzhou in western China. The bridge will be 25 km long, four times the length of the East Bridge on the Great Belt Link in Denmark, and will cost 900 million Euro.
"It's our third major bridge assignment in China. In addition, we have a number of smaller, ongoing bridge and tunnel jobs, so we have a firm foothold in the Chinese market," says Henrik Andersen, head of department at COWI.
COWI is already providing consultancy on the design and execution of the Sutong Bridge over the Yangtze River, which with a main span of 1,088 metres will be the world's largest cable-stayed bridge, and the 10 km long Shanghai Yangtze River Bridge.
With three major complex bridge projects on the order books, Henrik Andersen expects more to follow: "There are plans to build a substantial number of bridges in China in the years ahead," he explains.
The link across Qingdao Bay includes two smaller cable-stayed bridges and a suspension bridge. COWI's role will be partly to provide consultancy services on design and execution of the largest cable-stayed bridge, durability of the entire link and risk management of the complete project during the execution phase.
The bridge is scheduled to open to traffic as early as 2010. According to Henrik Andersen the short construction period will be a challenge in its own right, but will not be impossible, as the Chinese now have great experience of large-scale bridge projects. The length of the bridge is also a challenge, as well as the requirement for the bridge to be able to last 100 years.
"It puts demands on the choice of materials; e.g. the composition and execution of the concrete structures, the type of cables to be used and so on," Henrik Andersen explains.
The first phase of the bridge project has kicked off and will extend over the next six months. The bridge is being designed by local Chinese designers - a phase being closely monitored by COWI.
"We'll be scrutinizing the design and suggesting possible improvements before the actual bridge construction can be started. Then we'll be involved throughout the construction phase. Here the focus will be on construction methods and equipment for the construction."
By Gitte Roe Eriksen, jaje@cowi.com Published: 30.05.2007