The Development of Welded Steel Bridge in the 21st Century

Since the 80 s, enormous large span suspension bridges and cable stayed bridges have been built up in Japan, Europe and China (including Hong Kong), Steel concrete composite structure has been intensively studied and is used in engineering projects of France, other European countries and Japan. All these activities resulted in considerable improvement of the welded steel bridge technology. Nowadays, steel bridge structure not only holds a dominant position in the large span bridge construction, but also shows its competiveness in building small and medium span bridges. In the 21st century, the bridge construction shall be carried out at reduced the cost, short construction period, long service life and up to environment protection standard. The early 21st century will see a key stage of continued development of the bridge construction in China. We need comprehensively review the steel bridge growth history, actively absorb the advanced techniques related in foreign countries, systematically summarize the experience of bridge construction recently undertaken in China and construct a good environment suitable for improving bridge technology.