ICE 2015 Brunel Medal winner

Record breaking bridge scoops engineering Oscar

The Second Penang Bridge in Malaysia has been awarded The Institution of Civil Engineers 2015 Brunel Medal, which recognises excellence in civil engineering.

A record-breaking 24km, the Second Penang Bridge is the longest sea crossing in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and is one of the largest sea crossing projects in the recent history of bridge construction around the world.

Along with its impressive length, the bridge is seismic resilient and tsunami resistant. In a region prone to natural disaster, it will save lives in the future.

Overcoming a number of design and construction challenges, the project also uses many innovative methods, with durability planning, life-cycle costing and carbon footprint minimisation underpinning all aspects of the project.

The project was heavily monitored from an environmental aspect, with satellite imagery and marine water measurements ensuring the measures were implemented.

Main Contractor for the project was China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd with AECOM Asia Co. Ltd as consultant for design, construction supervision and engineering, and China Highway Planning and Design Institute as design consultant.

The project is owned by Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd.

ICE judges hailed the bridge, which opened to traffic on 1st March 2014, “a vivid example of how civil engineering can overcome the merciless forces of nature and direct its resources to sustainable use.”

The Brunel Medal is one of many ICE Awards being presented at a ceremony in Westminster on Friday by BBC journalist Alice Bhandhukravi and ICE President Professor David Balmforth.

 

Fact Box:

• The bridge is 94m wide and the overall length of the bridge is 24km (15 miles)
• The bridge is also known as The Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge – after the Malaysian King.
• In the main cable-stayed bridge construction, twenty-four 2.3m diameter piles bored to a depth of 127m – these are among the deepest bored pile operations in the world.
• The Statnamic load test conducted was the biggest Statnamic load test ever conducted (at a load of 54MN).
• The stay cables were installed onto the pylons using Malaysia’s first third-generation saddles, providing structurally efficient and aesthetically pleasing cable-pylon connections
• The project saw the most extensive use of precast concrete hollow spun piles in bridgework construction. A large-scale piling operation successfully installed a record number of spun piles totalling 5,168.

 

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