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107-year-old bridge restored ahead of schedule

Shanghai Daily, October 19, 2015

• The 107-year-old Zhejiang Road Bridge, restored to its original appearance, was lifted back into position over Suzhou Creek yesterday in a 10-hour operation.

  Zhejiang Road Bridge back in place last night. — Zhang Suoqing

  The bridge, removed from its foundations four and a half months ago for renovation, could reopen to traffic by late December after finishing touches to the road surface and the installation of lights and cameras.

  The 420-ton bridge was moved out of a workshop about 100 meters from the creek to the riverbank on Saturday prior to yesterday's final journey.

  Despite some unexpected difficulties, the project was finished one month ahead of schedule.

  "Many parts of the bridge proved to be in a worse condition than previously thought, so we put in more engineers and equipment to ensure that the bridge would be working again by the end of the year," said project manager Qian Cheng of the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute.

  Despite having to replace and repaint rusted components, engineers managed to return the bridge to its original design based on files from the early 1900s.

  "Basically we gave birth to the bridge again using contemporary technologies," said Shang Guoping, vice director of the city road administration's road construction division.

  He said the rivets in the structure were retained although the use of rivets in steel construction has long given way to high- strength bolts and welding.

  "While back then they had to use furnaces and hammers in riveting, we used electricity to heat up the rivets and electric appliances to drive them into the structure to make the process more reliable," Shang said.

  A few details in the look of the bridge were also corrected according to old pictures because maintenance on the bridge over the past few decades had erased some of its distinctive features, such as elegant arched structure at both ends of the bridge.

  The bridge is now some 200 tons lighter with the removal, among other things, of heavy concrete trusses, and the structure is expected to have a working life of at least another 50 years.

  With the bridge back in place, wooden sidewalks will be installed along with separate lanes for vehicles and bicycles. Previously, there were no lanes on the 8.5-meter-wide bridge.

  The bridge is the second oldest across the creek after 108-year-old Waibaidu Bridge.

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