1. BESSODANI BRIDGE

• West Nippon Expressway Company Limited
• Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Company Limited

The Bessodani Bridge is the first bridge in the world to apply the "Dura-Bridge", a "ultra-high durability" prestressed concrete bridge that eliminates all corrosive components such as reinforcing steel and prestressing steel, to an expressway bridge in order to improve the durability of the structure, reduce the burden of future maintenance and management, and prevent damage to third parties. The structure is made of high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete with a design standard strength of 80 N/ mm2, and the structure is reinforced by prestressing with aramid FRP rods against the tensile force generated. The box girder webs are made of “Butterfly webs” with thin butterfly-shaped panels to reduce the self-weight, to simplify the resistance mechanism against shear forces, and to achieve reinforcement using only prestressing.

2. SHIN-ASO OHASHI BRIDGE

• Kumamoto Reconstruction Project Office, Kyushu Regional Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
• Chodai Co., Ltd.
• Joint Venture of Taisei Corporation, IHI Construction Service Co., Ltd., and Happo Corporation
• Joint Venture of Iwanagagumi Co., Ltd. and Isayama Kogyo Co., Ltd.
• Japan Steel Tower Co., Ltd.

Shin-Aso Ohashi Bridge is a 525-meter-long road bridge that replaced an old bridge, which was damaged in the April 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake. The various considerations for this bridge were made during the design stage to minimize the impact of fault displacement caused by a large-scale earthquake. The construction period of 345-meter prestressed concrete rigid-frame box-girder bridge in the river section was shortened by about 16 months, owing to the introduction of advanced construction technologies. This bridge was constructed using the best of bridge technology, and it can contribute significantly to the development of bridge technology, and deserves the Japan Society of Civil Engineers Tanaka award.

3. NAKA BRIDGE

• Minamisanriku-town, Miyagi
• Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd
• KENGO KUMA ＆ ASSOCIATES
• Yada Industries Co., Ltd.
• TOBISHIMA CORPORATION ＆ DAIHO CORPORATION ＆ Mitsui Consultants Co., Ltd. Joint venture
• Masukawa Construction Co.,Ltd.

Naka Bridge is the only bridge with direct access to the Reconstruction Memorial Park, which was built as a place for the repose of the souls of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and stands as a symbol of the reconstruction in Minamisanriku. The highly complex superstructure consists of a double-deck pipe truss with a lens-shaped side configuration and an X-shaped planar configuration. Due to the double-deck structure, the upper and lower decks form a three-dimensional open space with the lower deck layer approaching the river surface, bringing pedestrians closer to the Yawata River.

4. MORIMURA BRIDGE

• Oyama Town
• Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd.
• IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd.
• Usuko Co., Ltd.

The Morimura Bridge is a simple steel curved-chord pin-jointed Pratt truss bridge constructed in 1906. This project involves the restoration and rehabilitation works of a bridge with high historical value, allowing it to continue serving as a pedestrian bridge. After careful dismantling of the bridge, components were extensively examined at factory enabling maximum re-use of original components through reinforcements. Lost accessories were re-manufactured referencing the original design drawings and construction photographs. The bridge was re-erected in its original position. The works received the Japan Society of Civil Engineers’ Tanaka Award for creative construction methods applied in restoration of a cultural property without impairing its value.

5. Improvement Work of Dojima Ohashi Bridge

• City of Osaka
• MM BRIDGE CO., LTD.

Dojima Ohashi Bridge is an old historical arch bridge built over 90 years ago and very familiar to people in Osaka city. Since the arch span was expanded by about 150mm due to past land subsidence, additional stress was acting on the arch ribs and the girder obstructed shipping lane. In addition, RC slab was also deteriorated. In order to maintain the bridge for further 100 years, the RC slab was replaced with an orthotropic steel deck for the purpose of weight saving and reduction of structural height and the arch bearing was jacked up to restore the arch span and to improve stress state of the arch ribs. Because such an improvement work is unprecedented in the past and executed successfully, it can contribute significantly to the development of bridge maintenance, and deserves the Japan Society of Civil Engineers Tanaka award.

6. Tokiwabashi Restoration Project

• Chiyoda City
• Japan Cultural Heritage Consultancy
• Eight-Japan Engineering Consultants Inc.
• Tekken Corporation
• Advisory committee on Restoration work at the Tokiwabashi Bridge.

The main purpose of this project was to disassemble and repair the Tokiwabashi Bridge, which was deformed by the Great East Japan Earthquake and was in danger of collapsing. Tokiwabashi Bridge is a double-arched bridge originally built in 1877 on the site of the main gate of Edo Castle, with a wooden foundation and a dry-stone arch reusing the stones from the stone wall of the castle. In order to preserve its value as a cultural property and to achieve enhanced earthquake resistance and safe flood control, a hybrid method combining traditional techniques and advanced technologies was used, such as the use of Japanese Washi-paper and ultra-high strength mortar. This method is worthy of being widely disseminated as an example of the conservation of Japan's representative civil engineering heritage.

7. Development of Evaluation mMthod and Full Scale Adoption of Water-based Painting System for Steel Bridge in Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway

• Metropolitan Expressway Co., Ltd.
• Japan Engineering Co., Ltd

Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway (MEX) and Japan Engineering Co., Ltd. have developed evaluation method for suppression of rust occurrence and progress even beneath of water-based painting base layers. MEX started full scale application of water-based bridge painting system since 2019. The water-based painting system can reduce the risks of fire accident occurrence and emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) dramatically in work site. It is thought that the system will greatly contribute to the improvement of environment at steel bridge construction or maintenance site. Therefore, this evaluation method and water-based painting system deserves the Tanaka Award of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.

Tanaka Awards

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