Chinese Bridge Sprayed with Polyurea Coatings Makes Forbes Most Notable List
SHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA - November 21, 2011 - The world’s longest bridge made a recent Forbes list of the world’s 11 most incredible bridges. Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, located in the northeastern Shandong Province of China, is the world’s longest sea-spanning bridge, connecting Qingdao and Huangdao with a 26.4-mile structure. According to the judges, construction of the bridge is a “technological miracle,” hailing China’s advanced level of architecture and technological development. The bridge, in fact, was coated with polyurea coating during construction.
Construction of the bridge officially started on June 30th 2007, and was completed on June 28th 2011. Chinese officials said the bridge was designed to be strong enough to withstand a magnitude 8 degree earthquake, typhoons, or the impact of a 300,000-ton vessel. The design lifetime is 100 years, which requires not only durable concrete technology but also high performance protective coatings.
However, the bridge is located in the most critical circumstances, the Jiaozhou Bay of north China, where there are 50-60 days of frozen-thawed time per year, which degrades and corrodes the concrete building material. The bridge required a versatile coating with fast cure against high humidity, high thick film building, high tensile strength, high elongation at break, high impact resistance, high abrasion resistance and UV stable with 100 years’ durability.
After a long period of survey and investigation, pure polyurea become the best choice for this protective aim. Polyurea was applied to the pile caps to protect the concrete from ship impact as well as the freezing and thawing cycles that occur throughout the year.
The polyurea was provided by Qingdao Shamu International Trade Co., Ltd. The application was completed successfully under the supervision of Dr. Weibo Huang, a professor of Qingdao Technological University, who is a pathfinder of polyurea technology and the chief scientist of Beijing- Shanghai High Speed Railway Polyurea Protective Project in China.
Explore the photo gallery to view pictures of the application process. Photos were provided courtesy of http://www.polyurea.cn/
