IABSE-JSCE Joint Conference on Advances in Bridge Engineering-III, August 21-22, 2015, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
ISBN: 978-984-33-9313-5
Amin, Okui, Bhuiyan, Ueda (eds.) www.iabse-bd.org
Fabrication and erection of Tokyo Gate bridge
T. Yoneyama
Kawada Industries, Inc., Toyama Plant, Nanto-city, Toyama, Japan
Y. Fujii
Kawada Industries, Inc., Tokyo Head Office, Tokyo, Japan
ABSTRACT: Tokyo Gate bridge was planned to mitigate traffic congestion on coastal roads around Tokyo
Port and to provide access to a future logistics hub. In engineering, there were two major restrictions; airspace
above the bridge due to proximity to Haneda Airport and seaway clearance beneath the bridge for vessel pas-
sage. These constrains resulted in selection of a composite structure with steel truss members and a steel
box girder in lieu of a cable-stayed or a suspension structure. In order to save construction cost, several signif-
icant measures were adopted. They include use of newly developed SBHS (Steels for Bridge High Perfor-
mance Structure) and large block erection using three heavy duty floating cranes.
1 FACTS AND CHALLENGES
The bridge is located just outside of the Tokyo Port, which is one of the busiest ports in the world and which
has future expansion plan including new container terminals. The bridge is expected to improve traffic and
to mitigate approaching routes congestion. It is located near Haneda International Airport. Under the bridge
there is Tokyo Port’s Seaway #3 for the vessel traffic. Therefore the bridge has the following challenges.
-Overall structure’s height shall not exceed 98.1 meter in order to assure clearance for incoming and outgoing
air traffic to and from the airport.
-For 300 meter seaway, under bridge clearance shall be at least 54.6 meter for 60000 ton class vessels and the
world’s largest cruise ships such as the Queen Elizabeth II.
Figure 1. Geometrical Restriction of the Bridge
In order to achieve the above challenging requirement, the bridge type was elected to be of a composite struc-
ture with steel truss members and a steel box girder in lieu of a cable-stayed or a suspension structure.
General information of the bridge is shown in the following figure.
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Figure 2. General Information of Tokyo Gate bridge
2 THE BRIDGE’S KEY FUTURES FOR ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION
The following are the key futures of design, fabrication and erection of the bridge.
i. Use of Newly developed High Performance Steel for Bridge-SBHS Steel
ii. All Welded Joints for Main Truss Members
iii. Orthotropic Bridge Deck
iv. Eliminating shop trial assembly, the side span truss bridge sections were fabricated at shop and as-
sembled in the yard close to the erection point as erection blocks.
v. Erection of the two large blocks with well synchronized performance of 3 heavy duty floating cranes
vi. Among those above, this paper will be focused on “Fabrication using newly developed SBHS steel”
and “Erection of the large blocks with 3 heavy duty floating cranes”.
3 FABRICATION USING SBHS STEEL
3.1 Outline of SBHS Steel
The project used significant amount of newly developed SBHS Steel : Steels for Bridge High Performance
Structure, with high tensile strength as 570 N/mm2 or above (to be called SBHS steel in this paper).
The location of SBHS steel application and the amount used are shown in the following figure. We were able
to save 600 tons (3%) of steel usage comparing to regular JIS SM570 steel (Ts=570 N/mm2 or above : to be
called 570 N steel in this paper).
Figure 3. Members where SBHS steel was used
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Table 1. SBHS500 Steel
______________________________________________________
Total Steel Weight : Approximately 20,500 tons
SBHS Steel Included : Approximately 10,300 tons (51%)
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SBHS steel features high-performance, high-tensile strength that was developed through a joint project car-
ried out by industry and academia for the purpose of reducing steel bridges’ construction costs in Japan.
The specifications for the material grade of SBHS-SBHS500 that was used for the bridge are shown in the
following table.
Table 2. Specifications of SBHS500 steel
Chemical composition C Si Mn P S N
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
0.11max. 0.55max. 2.00max. 0.020max. 0.006max. 0.006max.
Mechanical YP TS Elongation Toughness
properties
Thickness range Elongation Temperature Energy Direction
(N/mm2) (N/mm2) (mm) (%) (°C) (Joule)
500min, 570~720 6 up to 16 19min. -5 100min. Transversal to
roll direction
Over16 up to 20 26min. -5 100min. Transversal to
roll direction
Over 20 20min. -5 100min. Transversal to
roll direction
It has the following advantages;
i. Higher yield strength than conventional steel (constant yield strength irrespective of sheet thickness)
ii. Greater ease of fabrication and welding than conventional 570 N steel, eliminating preheating in
some cases, and enabling reducing preheating temperature.
iii. Charpy test conducted perpendicular to rolling direction; Toughness is high at any plate rolling di-
rection.
iv. Improves ease of welding and cold fabrication, etc.; improves formability in manufacturing
SBHS steel is produced by high-tech thermal process controlling and by adding synthetic element so that it
has higher precipitation strength and finer crystalline structure.
As a result, SBHS steel is low carbon alloy and yet it has high strength and high toughness.
It also has as good workability as JIS SM 490Y class steel (Ts=490 N/mm2 or above : to be called 490 N steel
in this paper).
3.2 Tests to Confirm Workability for SBHS Steel
Prior to fabrication work, a series of tests were conducted in order to confirm those advantages of SBHS steel
for thermal cutting, cold bending, heat straightening, preheating and weldability.
3.2.1 Thermal cutting
Thermal cutting was performed using the same work parameters as 490N steel and no problem such as rough
cut surface , sticky slag or edge melting was observed.
3.2.2 Cold-bending
After bending with radius=5 times of thickness, the Charpy V-notch value (vE-5) still exceeded 200J for both
longitudinal and transverse directions, while SBHS specifications requires that after bending with radius=7xt,
the Charpy V-notch value (vE-5) shall be 100 J min.
Table 3. Charpy Test Result
Treatment Strain Aging
Impact Test Specimen thickness/4
Sampling Location
Direction vE-5 average vTrs
Joule °C
Longitudinal 273 -45
Transversal 298 -40
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3.2.3 Heat straightening
After liner heating 1000°C and either air-cooling or water-cooling, the tensile strength and Charpy V-notch
toughness value still exceeded requirement.
Table 4. Heat Straightening Methods for Comparison
Method# Heat Temperature Cooling Gas Height of Torch Water Applied
1 900°C Air O2* and C2H2** 14mm None
2 900°C Water O2* and C2H2** 14mm 6 liter per minute
3 1000°C Air O2* and C2H2** 14mm None
4 1000°C Water O2* and C2H2** 14mm 6 liter per minute
*Pressure 5kg/cm2 Flow Rate 50 liter per minute
**Pressure 0.5kg/cm2 Flow Rate 20 liter per minute
Table 5. Heat Straightening Method Comparison Result
Method# Transversal Direction 1mm under Surface
Mechanical Test Impact Test Result
Yield Point Tensile Strength Elongation Direction vE-5
(N/mm2) (N/mm2) (%) (Joule Average)
1 534 637 30 Longitudinal 30.1
1 ditto ditto ditto Transverse 29.3
2 536 637 28 Longitudinal 29.9
2 ditto ditto ditto Transverse 29.5
3 529 633 29 Longitudinal 28.7
3 ditto ditto ditto Transverse 29.5
4 538 637 29 Longitudinal 29.9
4 ditto ditto ditto Transverse 28.9
3.2.4 Preheating
Y-groove weld cracking tests were performed on GMAW welding and SMAW welding with no preheating
(room temperature 6°C) and no crack was detected.
Table 6. Welding Procedure Test with No Preheating
Welding Process SMAW
Welding Consumable L-62CF
Diameter 4mm
Preheating None (Room Temperature 20°C)
Humidity 60%
Parameter 170Amp-25Volt-15cm/minute
Heat Input 1.7 K.Joule/mm
Drying Consumable 400°C for 1 hour Stored at 110°C No Moisture Absorption
Result NO CRACK DETECTED
Welding Process GMAW
Welding Consumable YM-60C
Diameter 1.2mm
Preheating None (Room Temperature 20°C)
Humidity 60%
Parameter 280Amp-30Volt-30cm/minute
Heat Input 1.7 K.Joule/mm
Drying Consumable CO2 25liter/minute
Result NO CRACK DETECTED
3.2.5 Weldability
Welding procedure tests with two processes were conducted. One was by CO2-GMAW with heat input under
5KJ and interpass temp under 250 oC. Another one was SAW double electrodes in tandem with heat input un-
der 10 kJ and interpass temperature under 300 oC. Both welding processes were proven to be satisfactory with
the tensile strength and Charpy toughness exceeding requirement.
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3.2.6 Summary of the procedure test results
While conventional 570N steel tends to have more restricting factors that 490 N steel for cutting because of
more alloy ingredients, SBHS steel is as easy to cut as regular 490 N steel. SBHS steel can be bent to 5 x
thickness radius and it is equal to regular 490 N steel. Heat straightening up to 1000°C and water cooling still
resulted in all sound steel mechanical properties. All the welding procedure tests with minimum heat input
and no preheating caused no cracking on Y-groove weld cracking tests. These results proved that we do not
need preheating. Both SAW welding with heat input 100 KJ/cm and CO2-GMAW welding inter-pass temper-
ature over 230 °C(specified for JIS 570 N steel) produced sound and acceptable mechanical properties.
Supported by the above procedure test results, the fabrication was performed with NO preheating.
Figure 4. Fabrication Photo
The fabricated members were then transported to the assembly yard near erection point to complete erection
block assembly.
Figure 5. Yard Assembly and Completing Erection Block at Ariake Yard
4 ERECTION
4.1 General
Side span unit weighs approximately 6800 tons and including lifting assembly the overall erection block
ended up with 7400 tons. It takes three heaviest duty floating cranes in Japan working together in synchro-
nized way to lift and install the block. In Japan, such a three-FC operation has been done 3 times in the past
and this was the fourth. The last time it was done was 16 years ago. The three floating cranes assigned for
this erection are Kasho with 4100 ton capacity, Musashi with 3700 ton capacity and Yoshida 50 with 3700 ton
capacity. The scheduling process started two years before erection time so that we could be sure that those
high demand floating cranes are available on the erection day.
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Figure 6. Three Heaviest Duty Floating Cranes for Erection
4.2 Challenges
The location being so close to the airport, floating crane jibs have to be below required elevation. It had to
be closely monitored and controlled all the time.
Vessel seaway was restricted for the operation during narrow window of time. The floating crane location
(coordinates) had to be closely monitored and controlled .
Lifting load had to be distributed among the three floating cranes as designed.
In order to deal with these challenges, the Three FC Lifting Control System was developed.
4.3 Three FC Lifting Control System
The system was developed in order to monitor real time for lifting load, elevation and location (coordinates)
of each floating cranes.
As a part of the system operation, GPS devices were installed at the jib top and back stay of each floating
crane. The acceleration meter was installed in the middle of the erection block.
Each floating crane control is linked by wireless LAN and the real time joint operation was monitored and
controlled. Lifting load, jib inclination angle and jib top elevation are closely related to FC’s lifting perfor-
mance. Therefore they had to be closely monitored and controlled.
Figure 7. Three FC Lifting Control System
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Figure 8. Lifting points
4.3.1 Lifting load control
Usually, in one floating crane four-hook-operation, lifting points would be either 8 or 16 for even load distri-
bution. In this project the three floating cranes have to work together, each floating crane was set to have
two lifting points in order to simplify the control work. The lifting load was closely monitored for each load-
ing by hook as well as total four hooks. The actual lifting loads had to be within plus or minus 10% of the de-
signed loads. If the actual load is out of this range, the operation had to be stopped for re-adjustment.
Figure 9. Lifting load monitoring
4.3.2 Elevation control
Elevation coordinates as well as latitude and longitude were monitored and controlled closely in order to con-
firm that the operation would not interfere with airway traffic. The information of the coordinates was ob-
tained from GPS devices installed at jib tops.
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Figure 10. Elevation Control
4.3.3 Location control
During lifting off the ground and erection operation, the three floating cranes travel over 100 meter going
back and forth. If the relative locations among the three cranes change, loading should be changed. So the
locations were closely monitored and controlled by GPS devices. At the same time using the acceleration
meter installed in the middle of the erection block, inclination of the erection block was carefully monitored
as well and controlled.
Figure 11. Location control
4.4 Completing Erection
Because of the well planned and careful control as mentioned above the two blocks, -Chubo side block and
Wakasu side block, were successfully erected on September 15, 2009 and September 28, 2009 respectively.
During the erection operation, we had Typhoon hit and we had to move back those floating cranes and wait
but the erection was done within the timeframe we planned.
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Figure 12. Lifting up erection block off assembly yard
Figure 13. Erection of the block
Figure 14. Completion of two block erection
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REFERENCES
Fujita,T et al. 2006. The Investigation of workability and weldability of Bridge High Performance Steel Materials.
Kawada technical report volume 25.
Kodama,Y et al. 2011.Erection of Tokyo Gate Bridge. Kawada technical report volume 30.
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