General Design of Airport Road Yaojiang Bridge in Ningbo

Ningbo has grown into one of the four international deepwater harbours in China. For its continued development and to provide a link between the main town and the north of the city, also enhance the regional economic development by connecting to the northern coastal link with Shanghai, a plan was developed for the construction of a vehicular bridge across Yao Jiang River along the Airport Road. This Airport Road Yaojiang Bridge has dual four lanes and side pedestrian walkways and spans the river at a location where it is approximately 250m wide.

Bridge design has become an art, moving out of the traditional framework of common bridge forms to reflect the client's desire for landmark structures. By working closely with an Architectural team, a bridge of striking appearance and simplicity has been achieved. To achieve this, the design team proposed a modified fan cable-stayed bridge with twin off-set pylons of 128m high. Its appearance reflects the City's culture and history but also ties in with the City's new international image. This asymmetric structure has also provided an exciting challenge to the Design Engineers. This paper describes the bridge design from conceptual design to the detailed design, including major technical standard, physical conditions of the bridge site, overall design of the Project Bridge in particular for the consideration of aesthetics, buildability and structural stability.