Recently, the list of the 2025 Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) of the International Road Federation (IRF Global) was released, and the project "Design Innovation Practice of the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Link" won the Global Road Achievement Award (Design category). The Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Link has become China's 11th project to win this award since its establishment, the first bridge project in Guangdong Province to receive this honor, and the only project in China to win the Design category award this year.

      The Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Link is the first major engineering project implemented under the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and is also a new landmark for the high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area. As the western extension of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Huangmaohai Cross-Sea Link connects Zhuhai and Taishan in Jiangmen, Guangdong. Its main line is about 31.1 km long, designed as a two-way six-lane expressway with a design speed of 100 km/h. The main line includes 21.3 km of bridges in 20 structures, 2.5 km of tunnels in 2 structures, and 4 interchanges.

      The cross-sea section of this project is about 14 km long and includes two main bridges, the Huangmaohai Bridge and the Gaolan Port Bridge. Among them, the Huangmaohai Bridge is the world's largest-span highway three-tower cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 2×720 m. As the overall design unit, the company, during the design stage, conducted surveys of the regional and cultural environment and comprehensively considered mechanical factors such as water blockage, collision resistance, wind resistance, and wind-induced vibration of the cable towers. It was the first in the world to propose a variable cross-section single-column tower with a "slim waist" shape. The five cable towers share a consistent style, achieving a harmonious unity of mechanics and aesthetics.

      The Huangmaohai Bridge innovatively applied a static and dynamic comprehensive vibration reduction and energy dissipation system for a three-tower cable-stayed bridge. Through the central auxiliary cables of the middle tower, the longitudinal elastic cable restraint between the middle tower and the main girder, the damping restraint between the side towers and the main girder, and transverse vibration-reducing energy-dissipating bearings, the bridge stiffness was effectively improved and the mechanical performance optimized. Through wind tunnel test optimization, a basic cross-sectional form of a separated steel box girder with excellent flutter performance was proposed, with a critical wind speed of 95 m/s. On the basis of maintaining good flutter performance, the influence patterns of vortex suppression plates, stabilizing plates, maintenance walkways, and railings on vortex-induced vibration were identified, and vortex-induced vibration control measures of "wind fairing + vortex suppression plates + lower central stabilizing plate" were proposed, achieving the goal of "zero vortex-induced vibration."

      The International Road Federation is a worldwide road academic organization established in Washington, D.C., USA, in 1948. The Global Road Achievement Awards are established by this organization and are divided into 12 categories, including design, research and development, construction methods, and environmental protection. They recognize projects and individuals worldwide that have achieved outstanding accomplishments in road design, construction, management, technological innovation, and sustainable development, representing the highest achievements in technological development and management levels in the global road field and ranking among the most influential honors in the international transportation industry.