High honor for Sky City steel structure

THE first phase lattice shell structure of

G60 Rafael Sky City in Songjiang was recently awarded the China Construction Project Steel Structure Golden Medal, the highest honor for steel structures in the country.

A new landmark along the Yangtze River G60 High-tech Corridor (an urban-rural development axis connecting Songjiang with eight cities in the Yangtze River Delta region), the sky city is being constructed in two phases. Its overall length is estimated to be 1.5 kilometers and the total construction area about one million square meters, equivalent to 12 standard football pitches. When completed, the complex will consist of 26 buildings — each around 80 meters in height — and will be the longest urban industrial corridor of architecture in the world.

The award-winning first phase project is made up of ten buildings, constructed with several pioneering engineering technologies.

The large-span roof shell structure in the first phase weighs about 4,232 tons. When it was installed, the operation level was more than 80 meters above ground, making its installation precision control and construction safety a challenge.

The sky city’s 80,000-square-meter roof has been manually installed with about 1.83 million airline-use rivets that are maintenance-free for life.

Since it was put into use about a year ago, the entire shell structure has withstood several strong typhoons, with feedback statistics reflecting high safety levels.

“The award marks a breakthrough for Lingang-Songjiang Sci-tech City’s steel structure construction capacity and management capacity. The project also contributes to the high-quality development of the architectural industry in China,” said an official with Lingang-Songjiang Sci-tech City, the sky city’s location.