Celebrated as one of the finest achievements in structural engineering, the Taizhou Bridge has earned top international accolades as the world’s first long-span, three-pylon suspension bridge.
Carrying six lanes of traffic across the two wide navigation channels of the Yangtze River, the bridge connects the cities of Taizhou, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, helping to stimulate economic growth across the region.
Commissioned by the Jiangsu Provincial Yangtze River Highway Bridge Construction Commanding Department, AECOM was selected as design consultant for this project, recognized for its expertise and innovation in long-span bridge engineering. AECOM’s bridge specialists met the unprecedented challenge of creating the world’s first suspension bridge with this integral configuration across Asia’s longest river head-on.
Building on the knowledge gained from the award-winning Sutong Bridge in Jiangsu, AECOM provided critical design expertise and specialist input for Taizhou Bridge. Extensive research and development addressed the unique challenges of asymmetric live loading, a defining feature of this structure.
Key research efforts included:
- Fatigue investigation and assessment of the central steel pylon under wind and traffic loads, individually and and in combination
- Fatigue analysis of the orthotropic steel plate deck girder under traffic loading
- Recommendations for design and detailing to optimize welded connections.
The state-of-the-art design incorporated groundbreaking innovations, most notably a central pylon engineered to be both highly stiff and sufficiently flexible. The project also pioneered five new world records:
- The first long-span, three-pylon and two-main-span (2 x 1,080 meters) suspension bridge
- The tallest central pylon at 200 meters
- The deepest underwater bridge caisson foundation for a central pylon
- The longest suspension cables, with two main cables each spanning 3,110 meters
- The first simultaneous erection of two long suspended deck girders within an integral suspension bridge system