The “Made in TISCO” Applied to Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Marco Bridge

At the time of celebrating the 20^th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Marco Bridge (HZMB), one of the China’s Mega Projects, will be completed soon. It is exactly the Super Bridge crossing Lingdingyang Bay that has used some material of “Made in TISCO” for its construction.

 

HZMB is the first super large infrastructure project, which constructed jointly by three places, i.e. Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Marco, under the policy of “One Country, Two System”. The bridge links Hong Kong SAR at eastern end and Zhuhai of Guangzhong Province and Marco SAR at its western ends, with total length of 55 kilometer. Its main construction is an integration of bridge-island-tunnel, consisting of 22.9km of steel structure bridge, the world’s longest immersed tunnel, 6.7km, at 40 meter depth under sea level and the eastern and western artificial islands which connect tunnel and bridge. Once completion, it will be the longest cross-sea bridge around the world, and another new landmark building of China. It is hailed as Mount Zhumulangma in the bridge field. Moreover, it was called as one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World by the Guardian of Britain. The nearly-completed HZMB may defend against typhoon up to 16thlevel and has a design lifetime of 120 years. It is known that the conventional stainless steel is not susceptible to corrosion, but this property cannot be assured in marine environment with low oxygen and high salinity. The HZMB is exactly in such an environment. Therefore, when the engineers chose construction materials, they turned their eyes on duplex stainless steel rebar, which has a higher strength than common rebar. But it depended on the imports previously and was expensive.

 

As a global leading stainless steel enterprise, TISCO has organized actively its scientific and technological force to develop independently and produce stainless steel rebar. To obtain international recognition, TISCO’s duplex stainless steel was sent to abroad and passed international certification, which helps TISCO to get major breakthrough in independent R & D and standard promotion. The duplex stainless steel of TISCO has been used in different parts of the bridge such as bearing cap, tower base, pier shaft and etc., with a total weight of more than 8,200 ton.