Phu My Bridge Is Officially Opened

Phu My Bridge is Officially Opened

The people of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, can now complete a quicker, safer and easier journey from the southern Mekong delta region to the central and northern parts of Vietnam, following the opening yesterday of the landmark Phu My Bridge.

The $150 million bridge was officially handed over to the people of Vietnam in a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister of Vietnam, along with other Vietnamese and Australian government officials, Rick Turchini, Baulderstone Managing Director and Dr Jochen Keysberg, Member of the Executive Board Bilfinger Berger Civil.

The new cable-stayed bridge spans the Saigon River and forms part of a new ring road currently being built around the south and east of Ho Chi Minh City. When completed, the ring road will ease the traffic gridlock resulting from heavy vehicle traffic passing through the city; a problem which has become so bad in recent years that a curfew has been imposed. With the completion of Phu My Bridge, goods traffic hauling agricultural and manufactured products between the north and south can now be routed around the city centre.

Baulderstone Managing Director, Rick Turchini, expressed immense satisfaction with the successful completion of the project.

"Baulderstone is extremely proud of the contribution we have been able to make to the infrastructure and economy of Vietnam, through our involvement with the construction of the Phu My Bridge," Turchini said.

"It was highly rewarding to be able to support local communities through employment and the training of Vietnamese engineers, managers and construction workers".

Baulderstone, in conjunction with Bilfinger Berger, formed a Consortium to construct the bridge. Efficient working methods and the incorporation of in-depth bridge building experience, gained from previous projects such as Vietnam's My Thuan Bridge, the Centennial Bridge over the Panama Canal and Sydney's Anzac Bridge, enabled the Consortium to bring the bridge completion date forward by four months.

The modified H-shaped main towers, each 145m high and the completed 705m-long cable- stayed bridge, with its sky blue cables, are now highly visible from the city and surrounding areas. With its vast central 380m span, the bridge dominates the entrance to the Saigon River and will define the city's skyline. The bridge boasts a 27m-wide main span deck to accommodate two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction, together with separate motorbike lanes and pedestrian footways.

The scope of the contract also included the design and construction of the approach viaduct structures on either side of the river, approximately 760m and 640m long respectively. Ongoing navigational passage for river traffic is ensured by a minimum high-tide vertical clearance of 45m across a 250m-wide zone of the bridge's central span.

The consortium continued the relationships formed previously on other bridge projects with bridge construction partners Freyssinet International (cable stays and stressing), Cardno, (design of the approaches), the Vietnamese company CC620 (concrete, formwork ,etc) and the French consultant Arcadis (design of the main bridge).

Design work was coordinated by Baulderstone and Bilfinger Berger staff in Vietnam, who closely supervised all subcontractors, and managed the direct labour construction of the main bridge. All works relating to the main bridge including piling, towers and decks were completed using direct labour.

Phu My Bridge Corporation (PMC) as the Client is a private consortium comprising Hanoi Construction Company, Investco, Cienco 620, Thanh Danh Co, and CII. PMC has a thirty year BOT licence to operate the bridge which will be part of a toll road.

Baulderstone is one of Australia's largest building and civil engineering companies, with operations in Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

www.baulderstone.com.au


Contact:


Chris Reynolds
Baulderstone
+61 2 9935 7000
[email protected]


Annette Cameron
Baulderstone
+ 61 2 9935 7100
[email protected]


SOURCE: Baulderstone Pty Ltd