Preparatory Documents for the International Seminar

• Seminar first announcement
• Seminar second announcement

Participants were a total of 154, including 17 TC 4.3 members and 137 Chinese expertsfrom about 70 organizations, such as design institutes, road owners, construction companies, universities and manufacturing companies. 23 papers from Chinese experts and TC members were presented. Rapid development of the highway networks in China has made maintenance as well as quality control according to bridge engineers, a priority for future economic development. Several presentations from Chinese engineers included these concerns.

A hot topic was planning and project management of long span bridges, since several projects of such bridges are to be realized throughout the world. New technologies associated with material improvement, new design, and new construction methods for long span bridges were presented, depicting progresses in the design and construction methods in different construction sites and environmental circumstances. Further presentations from China described current concerns associated with the overloaded trucks. It was suggested that the defects due to fatigue will occur due to heavy traffic.

Papers dealing with the monitoring and inspection of long span bridges confirmed that monitoring is essential to identify the bridge condition for long span bridges, including non-destructive inspection for suspenders and stay cables for cable supported bridges. It was concluded that the development of inspection techniques for cables are an urgent task to ensure the safety of traveling public since cables are the most important element for long span bridges.

For the maintenance and management of long span bridges, there were several concerns such as main structures, expansion joints, and pavements on long span bridges. It was suggested that it is necessary to select the most effective repair or rehabilitation methods to solve the problems.

Most of the participants agreed that this seminar provided a good opportunity for experts and engineers of bridge construction, field to communicate with each other on construction and maintenance technologies and experience of long span bridges. With meaningful and good topics, the seminar completed its objective of technical exchange for Long Span Bridge Construction, Maintenance and Disaster Resistance Techniques. Participants from China think that they learned a lot such as international bridge construction concepts and technologies from the foreign reports.