San Mateo Bridge, the First! Qingdao Bay Bridge, the Second!!

[www.polyurea.cn, 2011-11-20 news]U. S. financial magazine “Forbes” listed 11 of the world's most incredible bridges, of which Qingdao (i.e. Tsingtao, the famous Tsingtao Beer) Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is the world’s longest sea-spanning bridge connecting Qingdao and Huangdao with 36.48Km in long and 5127 piles in seawater. According to the judges, construction of the bridge is a “technological miracle,” which represents Chinese top level of architecture and technological development. Another highlight is polyurea coating.

The Location of Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge

The bridge started operation officially on June 30th 2007, and was completed on June 28th 2011. It is one of the most advanced bridges in the world using the most advanced construction technologies and skills. Its construction did not cause any pollution. 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 has over 50～60 days of frozen-thawed time, in consequence, degradation and corrosion even occur during the complication of the reinforced and prestressed concrete. This reminds us of the San Mateo Bridge. Polyurea coating was applied on the girders during 2001～2002 in San Francisco, CA, USA. Compared with San Mateo, Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is much difficult in application, because of the long span across the sea, and all the pile caps were poured in site instead of precast in the factory. In another words, we should apply the coatings on the pile cap, just like a lonely island in the sea. That requires 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. Shamu 411came on!

Beautiful Sea View of Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge

After long time survey and investigation, pure polyurea become the best choice for this protective aim, the pure polyurea was provided by Qingdao Shamu International Trade Co., Ltd , which has also completed the application successfully under the supervision of Dr. Weibo Huang, a professor of Qingdao Technological University, who is the pathfinder of polyurea technology and the chief scientist of Beijing- Shanghai High Speed Railway Polyurea Protective Project in CHINA.

Prof. Huang said that, this is a very successful polyurea project, which shows the typical and irreplaceable characteristic of pure polyurea, a great polyurea project depends on both the material and application, Shamu International has done very well in this area.

Polyurea application before Surface preparation

Polyurea sprayingPolyurea sprayed after