The approaches at Tsing Yi and Stonecutters Island are located near Container Terminal 9 and Container Terminal 8, respectively. Construction commenced on 27th April, 2004 and is expected to be completed in 2009 by Maeda––Yokogawa–Hsin Chong Joint Venture. It costs 2,760 million.
The bridge is part of Hong Kong's , connecting Sha Tin, Cheung Sha Wan, Tsing Yi Island, Ma Wan and Lantau Island. Other major constructions along the route are Nam Wan Tunnel , Eagle's Nest Tunnel , Sha Tin Heights Tunnel , Tsing Ma Bridge and Kap Shui Mun Bridge .
As a result of the difficulty of constructing this bridge, the project was featured on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering series in 2006.
Structure
The bridge spans 1.6 km, with 3 lanes in each direction. It is a cable-stayed bridge with two bridge towers, one on Tsing Yi Island and the other on Stonecutters Island.
With a main span of 1,018 m, Stonecutters Bridge will have the second-longest cable-stayed span in the world, after the Sutong Bridge.
Bridge Design
The design concept for the bridge was procured by Highways Department in Hong Kong through an international design competition and the winning scheme by a group consisting of Halcrow Group, Flint & Neill Partnership, Dissing + Weitling and Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute was selected as the Reference Scheme for the further design development. A group led by Ove Arup & Partners with COWI A/S as main sub-consultant has carried out the further design development of the Reference Scheme and the detailed design that followed.
The concept is for a cable-stayed bridge with a twin aerodynamic deck suspended from two 295m-high single pole towers. These towers will have bases measuring 24m x 18m tapering to 7m diameter at the top, and the deck will allow a navigation clearance of 73.5m over the full entrance to the Container Port.
The two towers will be in concrete until level +175m and in composite construction consisting of an inner concrete ring with a stainless steel skin for the top 120m. The original concept had a conventional steel structure above level +175m but Arup found that this configuration would be too lively and lead to unacceptable vibrations of the stay cables. Using a heavier composite section instead of a pure steel structure solved this problem. For reasons of durability and to enhance the appearance, further studies concluded that the tower skin should be fabricated from a duplex stainless steel with a shot peened surface finish. The deck itself will be made of steel in the main span and of concrete in the side spans.
The tower foundations will be located within 10m of the seawall on either side of the Rambler Channel, close to the back-up land next to CT8 and CT9. Their proximity to the channel necessitated ship impact testing and modeling. Geotechnical centrifuge testing was conducted using a 1:200 scale model of a vessel bow section and seawall within a container.
Wind Studies
The Hong Kong region is susceptible to very strong typhoon winds, a fact that is being taken into account in the design of the bridge. In October 2002 a 50m mast was erected at the site to measure the speed, direction and turbulence of winds in the area. Readings, which will continue until at least January 2004, are transmitted in real-time to an offsite location for further analysis. In particular, the stability of the 509m-long cantilevers during construction required special consideration in the design. Although the Hong Kong design standards contain severe requirements for wind loading then it is essential for a project of this scale and nature that the wind climate of the actual site is taken into account in the design.
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