Status and prospect of technical development for bridges in China

Abstract

As the key node and pivotal project of interoperability of traffic facilities, bridge is an important guarantee for the development of national economy and social safety. Brigde construction plays an important role in resolving production capacity surplus of traditional industries, promoting the development of new strategic industries and the third industry, boosting the integration and upgrading of industries, and stimulating economic growth. In the past 30 years, by learning and introducing international advanced technology and self-innovation, Chinese bridges have achieved a leapfrog and made a number of independent innovation to drive Chinese bridges from massive quantity to quality development. However, comparing with the developed countries, China still falls behind in many aspects, including key technologies, materials, softwares, equipments, standardization and specification, etc. The huge demand of bridge construction, maintenance, and safety, as well as the trend of industrialization, informatization and intelligentialize require us to examine the technological development of Chinese bridges from a higher starting point and put forward the future technological development direction, target and task of Chinese bridges aiming at national strategic, which needs with the principle of problem-oriented and demand-oriented. This paper summarizes the main achievements and shortages of Chinese bridges in five respects: construction technology, new structure and high performance materials, monitoringinspection- assessment and maintenance technology, information technology, standard and specification and points out that, in order to support major national development strategy and assure the safety and longevity of huge amount of bridges as well as realize the dream of being a world bridge power, we must further improve the level of technological innovation for Chinese bridges through implementing the science and technology plan "China Bridge 2025" with the theme of momentous project named as "Intelligent Bridge" as soon as possible, which is ensured through the form of China Bridge Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance.