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Aussie Excellence at My Thuan Bridge, Vietnam

With its gracefully tapered towers and fine blue-sheathed multistrand cables supporting a slender bridge deck, the elegance of Vietnam's new My Thuan Bridge disguises its strength and significance.
The 1.5 km cable-stay bridge is the first built in Vietnam and the first bridge spanning the mighty Mekong River Delta. Despite its apparent lightness, it is designed and built with the latest technology and Australian engineering expertise to withstand ship impacts, as well as the region's severe monsoons and volatile seismic conditions. About 125 km south of Ho Chi Minh City, the My Thuan Bridge rises up to a height of almost 40 m as it crosses the Tien Giang River, a branch of the Mekong, providing a crucial link in National Highway 1, South Vietnam's most important transport route. The high-level river crossing of four traffic lanes and two pedestrian footways has transformed the lives of the 16 million people living in the fertile Mekong Delta, giving reliable year-round access for this vast area to the markets in Ho Chi Minh City and beyond. Through an AusAid grant, the Government of Australia contributed two-thirds of the cost of the $95m My Thuan Bridge. A major aim of the project was to develop Vietnamese capacity to design, manage and construct infrastructure to further the country's long-term economic and social development. It carried a A$1m AusAid training budget, the largest ever allocated for an engineering construction project. AusAid commissioned engineering consultants Maunsell McIntyre to develop an optimum design and after tenders were called from four shortlisted Australian contractors, the construction contract was awarded to Baulderstone Hornibrook.

The high-level river crossing of four traffic lanes and two pedestrian footways has transformed the lives of the 16 million people living in the fertile Mekong Delta.

It is one of the most sophisticated cable-stay bridges anywhere in the world, coming five years after the completion of Sydney's Anzac Bridge also built by Baulderstone Hornibrook. The project brought a wealth of new construction technology to Vietnam and innovations at an international level in the design and construction of cable-stay bridges. Built using the balanced-cantilever method, stability of the balanced cantilever during erection was achieved with a simple tensioned-cable system which allowed the construction activities of the three major components (main deck, tie-down pier and approach decks) to be built in parallel.

The main cable-stayed structure over the river is 660 m long with a 350 m central span, side spans of 150 m and a navigational clearance of 37.5 m. The 23.66 m wide in-situ concrete superstructure is supported by 64 stay cables from each tower, with anchorage points located at 10.4 m centres along both edges of the deck. The deck was cast monolithically with the tie-down piers and fixed against horizontal and longitudinal translation at the towers. Stay cables are critical elements of the structure, and recently developed internal dynamic dampers to eliminate cable vibration problems were incorporated. The cables were also covered in UV-stable blue sheaths developed over the last five years, for a more dynamic and elegant backdrop. While this type of structure allows for the least amount of materials in the deck superstructure, it requires significant tower structures. The towers had to support high vertical loading as well as significant overturning effects during construction while deck segments on either side of the tower were progressively cast. The 120 m high towers have a modified 'H' frame configuration in order to maintain the cables in vertical planes. Each tower comprises hollow box section legs with crossbeams at two levels. Australian expertise in the design, fabrication and operation of jumpforms was brought to the project for construction of the main bridge towers. To accelerate construction, Baulderstone Hornibrook precast the main towers' 840 tonne lower crossbeams on the pilecaps and then lifted them into place using strand jacks. This was the first time such a lift was performed in Vietnam and the technique reduced construction time. The tower upper crossbeam formwork was designed to accommodate the forces from the first pairs of stay cables so that they could be installed before the upper crossbeam was completed, for further time savings. Supporting each of the towers are 16 x 2.5 m diameter vertical bored piles founded in dense sand 100 m below river level, making them among the world's deepest piles. As the undersides of the 4 m thick pilecaps were 1 m below high tide level, Baulderstone Hornibrook developed a precast concrete panel system with supporting steel falsework, which allowed this work to be constructed in a dry environment despite a 2 m tidal range. Staged construction overcame hydration and restrained shrinkage, which normally hinder such large concrete pours, particularly in tropical climates.
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Piling plant was brought from Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong for the work, and in Singapore it was placed on barges in such a way to enable the construction of the 32 offshore piles. A team of 15 expatriates operated and trained the local workforce in pile construction on a 24-hour basis.

Each bridge approach structure has 11 spans, with an overall length between expansion joints of 442.6 m. The 23.66 m wide deck section is of a beam-and-slab configuration using 10 x 1.8 m deep, 37.6m long precast prestressed Super Tee Beams in each span. The approach decks are made continuous over their full length by a dowelled connection of the deck slab to each pier crosshead. The My Thuan project introduced the use of Super Tee Beams to Vietnam, and Vietnamese consultants and contractors were trained in their design and construction. Baulderstone Hornibrook had to source and import all the plant for the project, including unique piling equipment, tower cranes, rough terrain cranes, man/material hoists, concrete batch plants, concrete pumps and placing booms. Two concrete plants capable of producing the specified 50 MPa high-strength concrete to ensure the strength and durability of the deck and tower structure were brought for the project. Expatriate staff completed mix designs and trained the local workforce to produce and test the concrete, which was sent to Australia for shrinkage testing and materials testing.

The stability of the balanced cantilever during erection was achieved with a simple tensioned-cable system which allowed the three major components (main deck, tie-down pier and approach decks) to be built in parallel.

Baulderstone Hornibrook also engaged local testing groups to carry out materials testing in Vietnam. Many of these tests were new to the country. The My Thuan Bridge was completed in 34 months, eight months ahead of the original tendered date and under budget even after additional works. The shortened program was achieved through a great deal of innovative planning and in particular by the local precasting of bridge components. Other main factors in accelerating the program were early engineering, early procurement and time-effective methods which increased productivity. In addition to the AusAid-sponsored training, Baulderstone Hornibrook provided construction and project management skills training to the local workforce and formally trained 19 design, construction and maintenance engineers at the Project Management Unit in Vinh Long. This expertise has already been used in designing the towers for the Dakrong Bridge in Quang Tri Province.

URL: www.dbce.csiro.au/inno-web/1000/vietnam_bridge.htm Email Innovation Online: information@dbce.csiro.au Last Updated: 24 October 2000

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