Sutong Bridge

1. Introduction
The Sutong Bridge is located in the
southeast of Jiangsu Province, China, which is in
the lower reaches of the Yangtze River having
width varying between 6km and 14km wide, and a
maximum depth of approximately 50m. At a cost
of approximately US $920 million dollars, this
visionary project was motivated by the need for a
highway route crossing the Yangtze River and
linking Nantong City and Changshu, a satellite
city of Suzhou of Jiangsu province at the opposite banks. This project is an important project
with the aim of reducing the economic gap between Suzhou and Nantong city and promoting
balanced development in the area. Completed in the summer of 2007, Sutong Bridge is the
longest cablestayed bridge in the world till 2012 after Rusky Bridge. The total length of the
cable-stayed portion of the project is
2,088 meters with a 1,088-meter main
span and a pylon height of about 300
meters. At the same time its deep water
approaches are also made up of
prestressed concrete.

2. Historical Background
As mentioned earlier the SuzhouNantong Yangtze River Bridge Project is
located in Chinas Jiangsu Province which
is a fast growing industrial region having
a population of 74 million people. In
recent times, Southern Jiangsu Province
has developed rapidly, but the presence of
the Yangtze River has restricted access to
the northern portion of the province, limiting its development. Sutong Bridge will provide an
important link between the cities of Suzhou and Nantong and assist in driving toward the
ultimate goals of eliminating poverty and accelerating mutual prosperity.

3. Difficulties in construction
River Flow
The river is subject to both high fresh water runoff volumes and tidal effects, creating
currents exceeding 3.0 m/sec in the extreme conditions. Maximum potential wave heights at
the site exceed 3.5 m. The river is alluvial and subject to rapid changes in bottom contours
due to high erosion and deposition rates. The river is the main waterway to the entire Yangtze
Basin with heavy barge traffic and up to 50,000-t container ships in the main navigation
channel. These site characteristics create a condition where the river bottom will immediately
respond to the introduction of any structure such as a bridge pier or pylon. Hydraulic model
studies for the bridge, performed by the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, predicted up to
29 m of scour (100 year return period) at the south pylon with a caisson foundation and up to

24 m of scour (300 year return period) at the same location for a large diameter pile
foundation solution (Jensen, 2004).

Navigational requirements
Large container ships and large-scale fleets pass from the bridge location on regular
basis. Thus clearance is required for the shipping lane for a width greater than 891 meters and
a height greater than 62 meters. Moreover, the main bridge had to be designed to resist the
impact of a 50,000-ton ship.

Poor climate
Each year the region averages 30 days of heavy fog, more than 120 days of heavy
rain, and high wind speeds caused by typhoons and tornados. As a result, construction teams
had to follow aggressive schedules to complete work in seasonal windows.

Deep bedrock
The bedrock is at a depth of 270 meters and is covered by sediment, sand, and silt.
This meant that a special solution was needed for the foundations one that didnt involve
drilling into bedrock.

4. Design details
The Chinese take proud in this bridge as it is an all China project. No international
participation is involved in bridge construction. The contractor for this construction was
selected to be China Harbour Engineering Group (CHEC). The project managers were the
Jiangsu Sutong Bridge Construction Commanding department. Although no international
assistance is taken for actual construction it was used in designing and planning phase.
COWI A/S (Denmark) was given DKK65 million for consultancy in concept and
design, to help in managing and undertaking the project, designing the wind tunnels required
for the project. Also in providing technical assistance, ensuring the quality, managing
operations and maintenance this company was involved.
The wind tunnels provided by COWI A/S were used for experiments by Force
Technology.
Jiangsu Province Communications Planning and design Institute was involved in the
bridge design. Maunsell AECOM was the engineering consultant.
Also Ove Arup (UK) was contacted to provide construction management services
whereas Lord Cooperation (North Carolina, USA) was helping in developing structural
monitoring system with the help of fluid formations and damper designs.
For the technical advices individuals from Tongji University, Bridge Survey and
design Institute of China Railway Construction Company, Ministry of communications, Hong
Kong Civil Engineering Association, Tokyo University, COWI A/S (Denmark) and TY LIN
Company (USA) were contacted.

For construction and engineering help the Jiangsu Sutong Bridge Construction
Commanding department purchased the Primavera P3e/c computer program for construction
and engineering. This helped in managing the project details, the contractors, involved
engineering firms as well as the design firms, procure and construct firms, engineers working
on this project, owners related to this project. This software works in planning and
scheduling, controlling the project, managing the cost, the resources, materials, management.
Also it helped in analysis and report making.

5. Bridge details
Section
North Approach
Main Cable-Stay
Auxiliary Bridge
Southern Approach

Measurement (m)
3485
2088
923
1650

The total length of the bridge portion of the project is 8.2 kilometres. The bridge
comprises a Primary Fairway Bridge (the Sutong Bridge), a Special Fairway Bridge, and both
approach spans. The Primary Fairway Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge, and the Special
Fairway Bridge is a pre-stressed concrete continuous rigid-frame bridge with a span
arrangement of 140 + 268 + 140 (548) meters. The approach spans are pre-stressed concrete
continuous girder bridges 75 meters, 50 meters, and 30 (155) meters in span length. At the
bridge site, there are two navigation channels, the Primary Fairway and the Special Fairway
for the exclusive use of the port of Nantong.

5.1 Details cable stayed structure

Fig 3 : Span arrangement and cross sectional details of the girder (unit m)
(Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development)

The deck of the main Cable-Stayed section of the bridge consists of a streamlined
steal box girder with a width of 40m and depth of 4m. It accommodates 8 lanes of traffic.
Across the main Cable Stayed span the decking reaches a maximum height of 62m above the
Yangtze River. Thus the required clearance is achieved. Longitudinal stiffeners are used in
association with closed steel trough. The steels used are having yield strength of 345 MPa
and 370 MPa. The dimensions of skirts and stiffeners vary throughout the length.
The pylons are of inverted Y-shape having height about 300 m. The supporting cables
are anchored inside the steel boxes fixed to the concrete by shear studs at pylon top.
The supporting cables are arranged in double inclined cable planes. It has spacing
equal to 16 m at central span going to 12 m near the ends of back spans. The parallel wire
arrangement is used to reduce the wind effect.
Over the length of the bridge the column sections vary through each and every section
thus can be easily differentiated. On the northern side abutments are closely spaced which
helps in creating the gentle curve towards the cable stayed portion. The bridge is entirely
supported at two piers at each section which helps in gradual distribution of temperature
effects and prevents an opaque barrier. Same is the situation for the southern approach. There
is a sudden change from rigid rectangular columns to two A-frame towers spacing 1088 m.
The bridge has a constant matt texture for the abutments, piers and decking which
helps the uniform flow of river in all climatic conditions.

5.2 Details of prestressed approach

Fig
4
:
Prestressed
section
of
bridge

(http://203.151.234.15/~nonthabu/nonthaburi_th/images/project1019/Download/
Precast_segmental_design_and_construction_in_China.pdf)
The approach spans are made of fully prestressed concrete continuous beams
including 25 spans of 75 m in deep water. The weight of each segment is restricted to 150
tons.

Fig 5 : Storage of precast blocks, launching gantry assembly and installation of

deciator segment.
(http://203.151.234.15/~nonthabu/nonthaburi_th/images/project1019/Download/Preca
st_segmental_design_and_construction_in_China.pdf)
The bridge can be classified as following

Precast construction of continuous span

For this project short line segment precasting and balanced cantilever method was
used. Launching gantry was used to assembling of the cantilever sections. This bridge is the
largest project which has used precast segmental cantilever system, launching gantry
assembling and short line processing when considered in China. Special segments consisting
of anchorage segments and deviator segments were very carefully designed and precasted.

Cast-in-situ construction of anchorage cross beams

As mentioned earlier to satisfy the weight criteria of 150 tons, the anchorage cross
beams which are weighing half the weight of pier were casted in-situ.

Externally prestressed

Fig 6 : External Prestressing tendons

(http://203.151.234.15/~nonthabu/nonthaburi_th/images/project1019/Download/Preca
st_segmental_design_and_construction_in_China.pdf)

For this bridge a new method of external prestressing was used. It was developed by
the joint R&D centre supported by OVM (Liuzhou) Machinery Co. Ltd. and Tongji
University.

Unbonded cables

This bridge system uses unbonded monostrads having two features. First of it is the
deviator device, which can comb the individual monostrads and guide them in different
vertical and horizontal curvatures. And the second one is that the straight part of profile does
not need any grouting.

Post-tensioned construction

As we have mentioned earlier the cables are unbonded which is not possible in case of
pre-tensioned construction.

Linear prestressing
As the ends of same strand never meet is constructed as linear prestessed bridge.

End-anchored construction

As the tension in tendons is transferred to concrete structure by means of the jacks at

the ends and it is post-tensioned the bridge uses end-anchored construction.
Then each span consists of six 25T15 external tendons.
The tendon profile is straight which significantly reduces self weight of tendons and
facilitates the inspection and monitoring of strands during service time.

5.3 Other details

The construction of bridge shortens the distance between Nantong and Changshu.
Previously the ferry ride to cross this bridge used take one hour but due to this new route the
travel time will be reduced to 5 minutes.
The bridge is a part of G 15 Shenyang-Haikou Expressway. After completion it joined
Nantong-Qidong section of Ningbo-Qidong Expressway as well as some coastal highways in
north.
In south this bridge connects Shanghai-Ningbo Expressway as well as other highways
following Yangtze River.

6. Project cost and finance

The total cost of construction is estimated to be $6.45bn ($750m). 35% of this amount
about $2.2bn ($266.12m) was collected by the local governments of connected regions. The
distribution was 60% by Jiangsu province, and remaining 40% was equally distributed
between Suzhou city and Nantong city. The remaining funds which are now being tolled were
received from the domestic banks as loans and now they are being paid back.

7. Serviceability
The Sutong Bridge is constantly monitored by a system of sensors in order to detect the
conditions and attributes that are associated with concrete erosion, helping to monitor the
durability of the bridge. The sensors monitor the conditions that are most like to cause the
corrosion of the concrete such as the temperature and relative humidity whilst electrodes are
also assembled that monitor the effects of corrosion. This data helps to provide information
on the areas that require maintenance whilst sensors are also installed to measure the tensile
strength of the cable-stays and foundation settlement, allowing for close monitoring of the
Sutong Bridge.

References
1. Precast segmental design and construction in China
Dong, Xu, Huichi Li & Chao Liu Dept. of Bridge Engineering,Tongji University,
Shanghai, China
Tailor Made Concrete Structures Walraven & Stoelhorst (eds) 2008Taylor &
Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-47535-8
2. Global Analysis of the SuTong Cable-stayed Bridge
Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development, Vol.1, No.
1(2006)51,
Jiawu Miao,Minshan Pei,Xigang Zhang,Rucheng Xiao.
3. Key technology and innovation of Sutong Bridge,

4. A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SUTONG BRIDGE ACROSS THE YANGTZE

RIVER IN CHINA, Adnan Al-Ammaren, Undergraduate Student University of
Bath, Proceedings of Bridge Engineering 2 Conference 2009 April 2009, University
of Bath, Bath, UK.
5. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUTONG BRIDGE FOUNDATIONS,
Robert B. Bittner, Ben C. Gerwick, Inc, San Francisco CA, USA
Xigang Zhang,
Highway Planning and Design Institute, China Ole Juul Jensen, Ole Rud Hansen,
COWI A/S, Lyngby, Denmark.
6. http://www.roadtraffictechnology.com/projects/sutong/
7. Sutong Bridge, China Mr. You QingZhong, Director, Jiangsu Provincial Transport
Department, China.