The Dongting Lake Bridge for an Expressway in China: Design, Construction and Analysis

Abstract

Dongting Lake Bridge, on the Hangzhou-Ruian highway, also known as the Second Dongting Lake (SDTL) Bridge, is located at the intersection of Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River. It is a large suspension bridge with a total length of 2391 m and investment of 546.53 million USD. At the time of writing, the SDTL Bridge ranks as the eighth largest span bridge in the world, as well as the second largest suspension bridge using steel truss girders. The special plate–truss composite girder was adopted, with a deck composed of an orthotropic steel deck and ultra-high-performance concrete, forming a high-performance composite deck suitable for the steel bridge. The SDTL Bridge also adopted many other new structures and construction technologies, such as a gourd-shaped anchorage foundation, beam segment rigid connections in the unstressed window period and a compound wrapping protection system for the main cable. This paper introduces in detail the structural system and special construction techniques used for this bridge. The wind resistance performance of the suspension bridge is also analyzed. This bridge can provide references for designing and constructing super-span suspension bridges.