IAC News

Suez Canal Bridge Maintenance and Repair Project

Stretching over the Suez Canal, which sees some of the world’s largest vessels pass through its waters, the Suez Canal Bridge was completed in October 2001 as a project undertaken with grant aid from the Japanese government. Built in the desert across the Suez Canal, the Suez Canal Bridge has pylons standing about 140 meters tall (with a 70-meter clearance under the bridge), which is roughly the same height as the Great Pyramid of Giza, and is shaped like a magnificent ancient Egyptian-style cable-stayed bridge inspired by the Pharaonic obelisks (an ancient Egyptian monument). By connecting the mainland of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal Bridge is an important route that contributes significantly to facilitating logistics and networking as well as regional development as a symbol connecting African and Asian.

In 2010, more than eight years after the bridge opened, damage was confirmed to some of the piers and part of the road surface, and after a follow-up survey by those involved on the Japanese side, work to repair the substructure, road surface, and steel deck plate was carried out from 2012 to 2016 as follow-up construction work involving the parties on both sides.

With regards to the substructure, the damage to the piers was particularly serious, and the peeling of the surface concrete and the corrosion of the reinforcing steel bars were so severe that they were of a level not witnessed in Japan. It came to light that the damage was caused by a large salt pan on the east side of the bridge and a large amount of condensation due to low temperatures at night. The repair work saw the removal of damaged parts and reinforcing steel bar rust, and the imperfections were filled with repair mortar before coating the surface.

As for the damage to the steel deck plate under the road surface, it was presumed that the main cause was the rusting of the steel deck plate caused by cracks in the road surface from the frequent passing of heavy military vehicles (loaded with rocks and estimated to weigh around 50-60 tons) over the bridge and subsequent water ingress due to the occurrence of condensation (a large build-up of water was confirmed in the drainage basin even during the dry months of the year). As a result of examining possible ways to repair this damage, a fine-grained asphalt road surface that has maintained its structural integrity for at least 10 years in other projects in Egypt was adopted.

The series of surveys and repair work on the Suez Canal Bridge made the engineers of the ministry of construction of Egypt (GARBLT: General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport) aware of the importance of maintenance, and instruction and construction management were conducted focusing on whether the repair work that may occur again in the future could be carried out by Egyptian engineers and contractors.

While everyone recognized the importance of bridge maintenance, this work made us aware of how difficult it is to propose an appropriate maintenance method that is suited to the specific circumstances in the said country and the technical capabilities of the organization that carries out maintenance. There is a tendency to impose Japan’s technological capabilities on developing countries, but the key is to cooperate from the perspective of training engineers in the respective country while adjusting to the specific circumstances in the country.

 

Suez Canal Bridge

 Substructure Repair Work 

 Road Surface & Steel Deck Plate Repair Work 

 

【Reported by Tatso Mukoyama (Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.)】

 

FY2021 JSCE Awards

Twenty-eight civil engineers including six non-Japanese engineers were recognized with International Lifetime Contribution Award, Continuing International Contribution Award, and International Outstanding Collaboration Award on June 10, 2022. The recipients by award are listed in the table below.
For further details, please visit http://www.jsce-int.org/a_t/international .

< International Lifetime Contribution Award: 4 recipients >
The Award recognizes (1) Japanese civil engineers for their significant contributions to the development of civil engineering technology and/or the infrastructure development through their professional practices in and outside Japan; (2) non-Japanese civil engineer(s) for his/her commendable achievements to the progress and promotion of Japanese civil engineering.

NAME	AFFILIATION
Naoki Kita	SHIMIZU CORPORATION
Yasushi Nakagawa	TEKKEN CORPORATION
Susumu Naruse	MIYAJI ENGINEERING GROUP, INC.
Kenzo Hiroki	The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

< Continuing International Contribution Award: 17 recipients >
The Award recognizes young professionals who have made and will make a significant contribution to the development of civil engineering and/or the development of infrastructure outside Japan with their unique and inspiring perspectives and solid technical skills.

NAME	AFFILIATION	NAME	AFFILIATION
Yoshihisa Asada	Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.	Yuichi Takemura	SHIMIZU CORPORATION
Koichi Ota	The Kansai Electric Power Company, Incorporate	Koji Naito	CTI Engineering International Co., Ltd.
Gou Orukawa	Electric Power Development Co., Ltd.	Hideki Fukami	OBAYASHI CORPORATION
Osamu Kutami	Dai Nippon Construction	Futoshi Mitsuhata	EAST JAPAN RAILWAY COMPANY
Takumi Kodaki	TOBISHIMA CORPORATION	Hirotsugu Mori	Japan International Cooperation Agency
Kenichiro Kobayashi	Kyoto University	Mitsuhiro Yao	Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Yoshimoto Koyanagi	Japan International Cooperation Agency	Dai Yamashita	PENTA-OCEAN CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD
Shinji Sassa	The Port and Airport Research Institute	Kenji Yoshikawa	Kajima Overseas Asia (Singapore)
Masakazu Sota	TAISEI CORPORATION

< International Outstanding Collaboration Award: 7 recipients >
The Award recognizes foreigners who have made contributions to the development of civil engineering in Japan or other countries, through the exchange and collaboration with Japan, and are expected to play an active role in the progress and development of civil engineering field.

NAME	AFFILIATION
Masanori Teddy Kartasasmita	Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.
Nguyen Quoc Thai	Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.
Nguyen Trung Viet	Thuyloi University
Jian-Guo Dai	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Noel Sun Aguas	TAISEI CORPORATION
Panganayi Cleopatra	Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.
Jan Dirk Schmoecker	Kyoto University

 

FY2021 JSCE Awards Ceremony

 

FY2021 JSCE Awards Celebration