Fujian bridge to receive prestigious intl award

A bridge in Fujian province has won an international engineering award, demonstrating the nation’s strength in building bridges and infrastructure, the provincial transport commission said.

The Shaxi Bridge, spanning 1,408 meters on a freeway linking Fujian with Hunan province, has six lanes for traffic traveling at 100 kilometers per hour. It opened in May 2022.

Fujian’s transport commission said the bridge will receive the prestigious Eugene C. Figg Jr. Medal at the 2024 International Bridge Conference in San Antonio, United States, in June.

The conference, hosted by the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania, is a renowned international academic conference in the field of bridge engineering.

The conference presents six major awards each year that are widely regarded as the most prestigious accolades in the field of bridge engineering, often being referred to as the industry’s “Nobel Prize”. The Eugene C. Figg Jr. Medal recognizes a single and recent outstanding achievement in bridge engineering that provides an icon to the community for which it was designed.

The China Highway and Transportation Society recommended 13 domestic projects for consideration this year, the commission said.

It will be the sixth time a project from China has received the Eugene C. Figg Jr. Medal since the award’s inception in 2002. Other award-winning bridges include Beijing’s Xin Shougang Bridge and the Jiangyin Bridge in Jiangsu province.

The Shaxi Bridge, in Sanming, crosses over a national highway, a railway, a river and a scenic area.

The upper structure of the main bridge employs a 176-meter steel truss composite continuous rigid frame — the world’s largest span for such a bridge.

It was built as a non-prestressed structure, resulting in a lighter and more robust structure with enhanced spanning capabilities, effectively addressing the challenges of traditional large-span beam bridges, such as deflection and cracking.

The project also used Building Information Modeling technology throughout the entire process of construction, design and maintenance, demonstrating the application of digital technology in the building of bridges in China, the commission said.