A cut above the rest

This article reviews the design and construction of Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong, one of the longest cable stay bridges in the world. Nine spans make up the crossing, with 300m tall single reinforced concrete towers to carry the cables: the top 118m will be sheathed in stainless steel. A twin deck design is used to maintain lateral stiffness and aerodynamic stability. Piling for the back span piers is constructed down to bedrock under the permeable sandy soil of reclaimed land, and the tower pile caps are adjacent to the sea wall, preventing the reclaimed land from washing away. The erection of the backspans will involve building 70m long reinforced concrete piers using jump form shutters monolithically connected to the deck. The concrete deck sections will be built from temporary precast concrete columns. Steel deck sections in the central span will be assembled from the towers, and when the main deck sections are connected to the cables the back span cables will be jacked, lifting the decks off the temporary columns.