San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge : A mega project

The obvious answer is Shanghai in case you were still guessing. The recently completed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge mega project led by the American Bridge–Fluor joint venture and sub-contracted to Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co (ZPMC) has just been successfully completed in Shanghai and shipped to America.

The US$ 350m dollar project was made better, stronger and safer as a consequence of ESAB’s technical involvement during the manufacturing process.

During construction of the Bay Bridge on a small island close to Shanghai called Changxing, the contractor ZPMC experienced some welding related issues that had to be resolved before the completed components could be shipped to America. American Bridge –Fluor JV and ZPMC invited ESAB China to propose a technical solution.

ESAB China’s expert welding engineers worked closely with ESAB global experts to run trials and subsequently help introduce new welding procedures and consumables to China that resolved the welding issues.  ESAB China supplied 130T of specialised welding wire called ESAB DualShield 70 Ultra Plus.

ESAB China’s new marketing director based in Shanghai, Sarah Robinson, who had a long association with the project says: “This is just the tip of the bridge building ice berg. Our association with the Bay Bridge project is well known and already other Chinese bridge builders have started to work with ESAB China. This is the start of a new manufacturing industry market sector called Remote Bridge Building.

This successful project has already drawn the interest of several upcoming international & domestic China bridge projects. The technology and location of bridge building has changed and ESAB China is well positioned to take maximum advantage of this new trend.