At the construction site of the Xiantao urban viaduct, nearly 100 UHPC-NC composite bent caps have been completed. This new material, known as "super concrete," has a compressive strength 5 to 8 times that of traditional concrete and is being applied on a large scale in the main works of an expressway for the first time in China.

"UHPC is extremely sensitive to temperature and humidity, and construction in hot weather requires even more precise control," the technical director said, pointing to the UHPC bent cap formwork being poured. "We further optimized the rebar layout, introduced positioning fixtures, and used BIM modeling to simulate the process, cutting the on-site installation time for a single formwork shell to under half an hour and completely moving away from the traditional cast-in-place bracket method."

As of now, for the left carriageway of the Xiantao urban viaduct, 96% of pile foundations, 62% of piers, 45% of UHPC-NC composite bent caps, and 44% of conventional bent caps have been completed. Once the viaduct is built, the space beneath it will be freed up for an 8-lane municipal road, thoroughly resolving the urban area's dilemma of "restricted clearance and cramped sites."

Source:Jingchu Net