Incheon Bridge
Begins to Shape Up

The pylons of the cable-staged bridge likely to be placed next May

The Incheon Bridge, the second bridge to link Yeongjong Island and Incheon, has begun to shape up over the sea off New Songdo City, west of Seoul.
A ceremony marking the placement of the first superstructure of a viaduct bridge section was held on June 16 one year after the project broke ground. The superstructure placed over the sea 6km off Yeongjong Island is a 50 meter-long, 16 meter-wide and 3 meter-thick, 1,400- ton concrete structure. It is one of a total of 336 superstructures to be placed over the planned cable-placed bridge.
Samsung Joint Venture, led by Samsung E&C, has employed a new construction method, the first of its kind in Korea where most of the superstructures are manufactured on a land yard and transported by a large barge to shorten the construction period.
On hand at the ceremony were about 200 dignitaries, including Minister of Construction and Transportation Chu Byung-jik, Rep. Lim Chae-jung, Son Hak-lae, president of Korea Highway Corp., and KODA Development President Kim Soo-hong.
In his congratulatory speech, Minister of Construction and Transportation Chu said, "The Incheon Bridge is at the center of our dream of developing Korea into an economic, logistics and financing hub of Northeast Asia that is slowly bearing fruits."Incheon International Airport is making a steady growth as it is rated one of the best airports in the world in the renowned AETRA survey in five years after its opening in March 2001, and Incheon International Airport is turning into a logistics hub with its free trade zone having already posted more than 50 percent in the rate of accommodating tenant companies.
"I'm surprised to see the 1,400-ton, 50 meter-long superstructure being installed at once after it was pre-fabricated and lifted by a maritime crane. Advanced technologies and engineering methods that have been acquired in the process of the project are our precious assets,"the minister said.
The Incheon Bridge that will connect Incheon International Airport and the international business district of New Songdo City is scheduled to be open in October 2009 at a cost of 1.27 trillion won. The project is rated to be an example of Korea's first private project management business, supervised by a foreign company with the transparent selection of design and construction companies through a public bidding system.
KODA Development, a joint venture between Britain-based AMEC and the city of Incheon, finances and manages the project, while Samsung Joint Venture, a group of seven domestic builders, takes charge of the construction. Samsung, Daelim, Daewoo, Hanjin, Hanwha, Kumho and GS are partners in the group.
The ongoing Incheon Bridge promises to be the longest cable-laid bridge in Korea with a 800 meter-long span, the distance between two pylons, about twice as long as that of the existing Seohae Bridge. The span of the Incheon Bridge will be the fifth longest in the world.
The construction process of the Incheon Bridge, listed on the global top 10 construction project by the British media, is now 25 percent complete, and the construction is picking up speed with the ceremony marking the placement of the first superstructure of the bridge. Yoon Man-keun, senior executive director noted that his company was trying to reduce the construction period as much as possible by adopting the so-called Fast-Track method ― conducting design and construction simultaneously.
KODA Development President Kim said, "The Incheon Bridge, located at a gate to a hub city of Northeast Asia, will serve not only as a landmark of Incheon with an improved profile of an international city, but also an attraction on the West Coast."The project involves the 11.658 km-long marine bridge - a 1.48 km-long cable-stayed bridge section, a 1.778 km-long approach bridge section and 8.4km viaduct bridge section as well as toll plaza area.
The Incheon Bridge will have diamond-type pylons with a much longer span, which is required to be precise, compared to the gate-type pylons of the Seohae Bridge. The work on the pylons whose height is an equivalent to that of the 63-story KLI building in Yeouido is to begin this month and finish next May.
The Songdo Casting Yard has an automatic system for ordering, storing, fabricating and delivering rebar. For the first time in Korea the automatic fabrication equipment for rebar cage is used for concrete drill piles so as to ensure efficiency and productivity. Materials used for the construction, including steel casing, pre-cast (PC) houses and PC girders are produced from the yard.
If and when the Incheon Bridge is opened, it will reduce the traveling time from the current time of one hour to 20 minutes.
The Incheon Bridge will be requisite as a bridge substituting the existing Yeongjong Grand Bridge to help Incheon International Airport serve as a logistics center, thus raising the rating of the airport.
Beyond New Songdo City, motorists traveling from downtown Seoul to Incheon Int'l Airport will make it in 40 minutes as it is connected with 2nd Gyeongin Expressway and the planned 3rd Gyeongin Expressway and West Coast Expressway, it will also provide easier access to the central region of Chungcheong. The cable-stayed bridge section will be placed high enough for a 100,000-ton ship to navigate. It is designed to endure a storm of with velocity of 72 meters per second and an earthquake with a Richter scale reading of 7. nw

A ceremony marking the placement of the first superstructure of a viaduct bridge section of Incheon Bridge.