The Construction of the Cross Bay Link Bridge in Hong Kong

Abstract

The Cross Bay Link (CBL) bridge is a 1km sea crossing that forms the centrepiece of the new East-West express highway link in Hong Kong. This £250 million project features an iconic 200m-span butterfly double-arch bridge and a series of concrete box girder spans supported on the specially-sculpted V-piers and large-size piled foundations. This paper describes the innovative construction methods adopted for building the bridge safely and efficiently in an extremely challenging marine environment, which leveraged on the extensive use of the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) solutions with most of the bridge elements above the sea level being prefabricated or precast offsite. This includes the construction of the 10,000 tonnes steel arch bridge, which was fully prefabricated near Shanghai, then transported to Hong Kong by a semi-submersible barge, and eventually erected onto the piers by using the float-over method. In addition, most of the concrete decks, piers and the pile cap shells were precast offsite and then lifted into position on site. This project holds a number of engineering records in Hong Kong, including the longest arch bridge, the first-time adoption of S690QL high-strength steel for major bridge elements and the largest-scale implementation of the float-over erection method.