Tsing Ma Bridge Design Five Major Components In Its Construction

Construction work of the bridge began in May 1992 and ended in May 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t. It costed HK$7.2 billion. The Lantau LinkThe Lantau Link formerly known as the Lantau Fixed Crossing, is a series of infrastructures linking Hong Kong International Airport to the urban areas. The Lantau Link was officially opened on April 27, 1997, and it opened to traffic on May 22, 1997., of which the bridge is an integral part, was opened on April 27April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. Events 1124 David becomes King of Scotland. 1296 Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England. 1509 Pope Julius II places th, 1997. The ceremony was inaugurated by the former British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still.

The Tsing Ma Bridge has been an important gateway to Lantau. It will become part of the planned Route 8 expresswayRoute 8 Hong Kong is a dual 3-lane highway under construction which will link Lantau Island, Tsing Yi, West Kowloon and the Northeast New Territories of Hong Kong. It is a combination of many sections. The section from Lantau to Tsing Yi is made up of the, which will connect the Lantau LinkThe Lantau Link formerly known as the Lantau Fixed Crossing, is a series of infrastructures linking Hong Kong International Airport to the urban areas. The Lantau Link was officially opened on April 27, 1997, and it opened to traffic on May 22, 1997., the West Kowloon expressway, Cheung Sha Wan and Shatin.

1 Design

The bridge is a joint venture between American and Japanese Construction companies. Trafalgar House Construction (Asia) Limited, Costain Civil Engineering Limited of Britain, and Mitsui and Co. Limited of Japan were the major contractors. Mott MacDonald Hong Kong Limited was further contracted to design and engineer the bridge.

Since it is the main component of the Lantau Link and the only vehicular exit and entrance to Hong Kong International Airport, the closure of road traffic and trains will cause visitors great inconvenience. Therefore, the bridge is designed to stand windspeeds at a maximum of 290 kph. The bridge has high navigational clearance to Hong Kong Harbour. For safety reason, it has to be closed when strong typhoon comes. For instance, at the time Typhoon Victor, then classfied as signal no. 8 typhoon, hit Hong Kong in August 1997. That was the first and only time the bridge has been closed. In some other cases, if there is bad weather, but not as worse as the signal no.8 typhoon, the upper deck of the bridge will be closed as well. For instance, in September, 1999, owing to inclement weather, the upper deck of the bridge was closed and motorists were advised to use the lower deck which remained open to traffic.

2 Five major components in its construction

Foundations and the construction of the bridge tower - one tower located on Tsing Yi side and the other on a man-made island 120 m from the coast of Ma Wan Island. Both towers are 206m above sea level and founded on relatively shallow bedrock. The towers are two-legged with trusses at intervals, in the form of portal beam design. The legs were constructed with high-strength concrete of 100 MPa strength, using a slipform system in a continuous operation.
Anchorages - the pulling forces in the main suspension cables is taken up by large gravity anchorages located at both ends of the bridge. They are massive concrete structures deeply seated on bedrock on the landside of Tsing Yi and Ma Wan island. The total weight of concrete used in the two anchorages is about 300,000 tonnes.
Main cables - The cables were constructed by an aerial spinning process. The process involved drawing wires from a constant-tension supply, and pulling loops of these wires from one anchorage to the other, passing a 500-tonne cast-iron saddle on top of each bridge tower seating the cable. A total of 70,000 galvanised wires of 5.38 mm diameter were placed and adjusted to form the 1.1 m diameter main cable.
Suspended deck - The steelwork for the deck structure was fabricated in Britain and Japan. After delivery, they were further processed and assembled in Dongguan of China into standard deck modules. A total of 96 modules, each 18 m long and about 480 tonnes in weight, were prepared. These deck modules were brought to the site by specially designed barges and raised into the deck position by a pair of strand jack gantries that could manoeuvre along the main cable.
Approach span on Tsing Yi side - similar in form and cross-section to the suspended deck, but the approach span was supported on piers instead of cable-support. The first span was assembled on the ground and raised into position using strand jacks. Further erection then proceeded in cantilever in smaller sections, using derrick cranes stationed on the deck level. An expansion joint which allowed for a maximum thermal movement of 850 mm was also provided and located inside the approach span section.

3 The Wind Tunnel

The objectives of the wind tunnel studies were to demonstrate the safety of the structure under construction and once completed, both with respect to aerodynamic stability as well as the possible effects of extreme typhoon wind speeds. A further objective was to provide dynamic response data at several key locations to compare with full scale data from the ongoing monitoring programme, conducted by the Highways Department of Hong Kong .

It is a 1 to 80 scale section model of the deck in the erection stage and 1 to 400 scale full aeroelastic model of the entire bridge. It is a Monte-Carlo simulation of the typhoon wind climate. The full model was tested in different stages of construction in turbulent boundary layer flow, complete with the local topography in order to model the wind conditions at the site. The model tests identified critical stages of erection that allowed the construction schedule of the bridge to be tailored to avoid the typhoon season. The comparison of model test results and the full scale monitoring will assist engineers to better understand the behaviour of long span bridges in wind and to improve current design methods.

4 As a tourist sight

Tsing Ma Bridge becomes a favourite scenic spot as well as a famous landmark. In order to watch and get further information about it, one can go to the Lantau Link View Point which is located at the northwest corner of Tsing Yi Island. It consists of Tsing Yi Trunkroute Viewing Terrace and the Visiting Guest Centre . The model, pictures and the structure of the Tsing Yu trunkroute are on display at the Centre. The View Point is opened from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays; from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It is reachable only by a bus running on holidays (route 243R), taxi, or private car. Parking is prohibited on this gigantic Bridge. From the Scenery Viewing Terrace, one can also see the Ting Kau Bridge and Kap Shui Man Bridge . They are the other two bridges listed in the world's "Three Mosts" as well.

4.1 Ways to get there

4.1.1 To the bridge

Take the MTR to Tsing Yi and get a taxi or all airport buses which cross Tsing Ma and Kap Shui Mun bridges. There is a green minibus 309M running between the Tsing Yi Airport Railway station and the Lantau Link Visitors' Centre every Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. The service departs from the Tsing Yi station operating between 9:30am and 5pm and that departs from the Visitor's Link operating between 10am and 6:30pm. The minibuses run every 60 minutes and cost HK$7 for a single journey.

4.1.2 To the View Point

4.1.2.1 (From Kwai Fong MTR station)

There is a shuttle bus on the passage beside the Metroplaza and Kwai Tsing Theatre on holidays. It departs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm; and returns from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. It operates at an interval of one hour.

4.1.2.2 (From Tsing Yi MTR station)

A shuttle bus is also available outside Maritime Square on holidays. It departs from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm; and returns from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. It operates at an interval of one hour.

4.2 Operating hours of architectural lighting

At night, there is an architectural lighting which makes the bridge even more gorgeous. The operating hours are as follows:

Monday to Sunday:

6:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight ( October – February) and 7:30 p.m. to 12:00 midnight ( March – September)

Special Event: 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. of the following day (October – February) and 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. of the following day (March – September)

5 Toll & Fee

The double tolls for motor cycle, private car, public double-decked bus and heavy goods vehicle are HK$20, $30, $60 and $80 respectively.

6 Traffic speeds

There are speed restrictions on the bridge. Traffic speeds are 80 km/h for automobiles and 135 km/h for trains.

7 See also

8 External link

Bridges in Hong Kong Suspension bridges

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