For most civil engineers, bridge construction is a heavy task to accomplish that will take months to construct – but not these Chinese engineers who have finished a 1,300-tonne bridge in only 43 hours.
The Sanyuan Bridge in Beijing links key 48 key routes and three major highways: the Airport Expressway, the China National Highway 101, and the 3rd Ring Road. Approximately 200,000 vehicles cross the bridges every day. That kind of capacity only makes this bridge a lot more critical, being exposed to the daily tear and wear from the hundreds of thousand of vehicles.
Source: CCTV America/YouTube bridge construction
With this, engineers, city planners and bridge construction specialists had to innovate all ideas that will simplify the overhauling the bridge in terms of time and cost. It took them way more hours to prepare the plans – there were 11 revisions of plans until they arrived to the final design – than to implement them. The deconstruction of the old bridge and construction of the new one took only 43 hours to complete. Wow.
This impressive feat may have been a result to a challenge posed by Japan, after Tokyu Railways in 2014 was converted from an above ground rail into a subway, overnight. That’s right, it only took an overnight.
These kinds of ultra-fast constructions must be how it should be done. Engineers from major cities around the world, your move.
