Create a Chinese standard in the bridge industry
From the research and demonstration of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to the opening and operation, from the young and the strong to the white temples, Su Quanke, chief engineer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Administration, has been working for 15 years.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was officially opened to traffic in October 2018.
This super project, which has set a number of world firsts, not only breaks through the spatial barriers between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, but also closely links the future development of the three places.
Su Quanke led the team to solve a world-class problem, turning countless "impossible" into "possible" in the eyes of international counterparts.
Independent research and development from scratch
In 2003, the State Council approved the preliminary work of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge project. As one of the participants, Su Quanke, then 41, devoted all his energy to building the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge across Lingdingyang, and was determined to use it. Chinese standard to build a Chinese bridge.
It is the first time to build a sea-crossing bridge in the open sea environment. From the beginning of its planning, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has faced the "three noes" dilemma of lack of basic data, lack of mastery of core technology, and lack of construction equipment.
"At that time, foreign companies were not optimistic about us. The design service life of the concrete structure in the sea was 120 years, and we did not have a set of molding methods." Recalling the difficult situation at that time, Su Quanke had mixed feelings.
In the face of the barriers that only a few countries have mastered key core technologies, Su Quanke has a single mind, starting from scratch, and independently researching and developing.
Lingdingyang sea area has high temperature, high humidity, and high salinity of seawater. Under the influence of many factors such as seawater, sea breeze, salt spray, tides, and dry-wet cycles, to build a high-standard sea-crossing bridge, every problem must be repeated. experiment.
"From design materials to technical standards, including international industry trends of cross-sea bridges, most of the materials are in English. Fortunately, I studied English at that time." Su Quanke said.
An important weapon of the country, there is no room for sloppiness.
In order to formulate a suitable technical standard system, scientific research planning outline, design consulting management method, and quality management plan, Su Quanke flew around the world to visit experts in the bridge industry, observed hundreds of bridges, organized and reviewed hundreds of thousands of technical Hundreds of design and construction plans have been completed through repeated demonstrations of documents and drawings.
Hard work pays off.
After 15 years of exploration and hard work, Su Quanke and the team finally broke through the design and construction of deep buried (large back silt) immersed tunnels in the marine environment, the construction of offshore prefabricated bridges, the 120-year service life guarantee of concrete structures, bridge - A series of technical problems such as disaster prevention and mitigation of island-tunnel cluster projects.
Strive for the best with the bridge
Born in the dry land in the northwest, he became attached to the water town and was accompanied by bridges.
In the late 1980s, after graduating from Xi'an Highway College with a master's degree in bridges and tunnels, Su Quanke went to Guangdong, where he was engaged in the design and testing of bridge structures. He is the chief engineer of the Institute of Science and Technology, and participated in the management of the World Bank loan project for highways and bridges.
These experiences gave him a clear understanding of the gap between domestic bridge construction and foreign countries.
"The technical force is relatively weak, especially in terms of equipment and materials, there is still a big gap with developed countries, and there is also a lack of careful pre-planning for bridge operation and maintenance during the design and construction stage." Su Quanke recalled the situation at that time.
The outside world took stock of the many "world's most" created by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge with great interest - the longest overall span, the longest steel structure bridge, and the longest submarine immersed tunnel, but Su Quanke was very indifferent to this.
In his view, quantitative indicators can certainly reflect the technical level of a bridge, but to measure the advanced level of a bridge, we should pay more attention to those aspects that are difficult to quantify but have far-reaching significance.
Su Quanke introduced that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has formed 61 sets of standards in design, construction, management, operation and maintenance, environmental protection, landscape and other aspects.
"These standards can not only ensure the quality of bridges, but also ensure construction safety, and the working environment of workers has also been optimized." Su Quanke's tone was full of pride.
Cross-border engineering digital transformation
After the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is opened to traffic, how to manage and use the bridge well so that it can truly serve the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has become a new mission for bridge people.
"In the past, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was a physical bridge; in the future, we will build an intelligent bridge based on digital twins." Su Quanke said that they are challenging the cross-border engineering problem of digitization of civil engineering.
Around the end of 2019, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, together with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Macau, China Communications Fourth Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd. and other institutions, established the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Traffic Construction Intelligent Maintenance and Safety Operation Project The Technology Research Center has launched a new round of collaborative research on the safe operation, structural monitoring and emergency control of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
Why build this digital bridge?
Su Quanke said that through technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, AR/VR and artificial intelligence, it is possible to accurately perceive the status of the bridge itself and its external environment. On the one hand, it can provide support for the maintenance of the bridge and prolong its service life. Early warning and monitoring are carried out in traffic analysis, road inspection and emergency management to improve the operation efficiency of the bridge.
In order for every small component on the physical bridge to find its place in the digital world, Su Quanke and his team need to develop a set of data acquisition equipment including drones, unmanned boats, and robots.
"On this basis, by exploring the logical relationship between the massive data, establishing an analysis model, continuously testing and repeatedly verifying, and finally realizing the intelligent operation and maintenance of the bridge."
"There is no systematic and comprehensive foreign precedent for the construction of such a digital bridge. I have a background in civil engineering, and now the construction of the digital bridge is in the field of artificial intelligence. I am learning every day, and I believe that relying on the strength of the team, the digital bridge will definitely be built. "Su Quanke said.
Kang Qiongyan