We watched a video on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge at Dr. Wu’s brother’s house to learn about the engineering that went into designing and building it. This bridge cuts off 120 kilometers between the two port cities and took 10 years of designing. Every year the Qiantang Dragon tide brings in tourists, so the first challenge was to ensure the bridge would not interfere with the tide.
There needed to be enough room between the pillars so ships can pass through, which meant they had to add wires on the top of the bridge for stability. The wires posed a dilemma because it would be very easy for the typhoons to destroy the wires.
With so many obstacles to face before building, it’s surprising to hear there were more obstacles when building it. Workers were not able to work on the bridge when there were typhoons so much of the bridge was made on land. The steel piles had to be specially made with noncorrosive coating and soot was added to the concrete to make the bridge more durable. Driving the piles down was difficult because there was natural gas lying under the surface.
Multiple large obstacles were overcome and the Hangzhou Bay Bridge is now the longest bridge in the world. After watching the video on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, I was very excited to see the bridge in person. Driving on the bay bridge could not compare to the video. It’s an indescribable feeling knowing you are on the longest bay bridge that was built despite numerous engineering obstacles.