Symbol for a City
Compared to a butterfly, Shenyang, China's Sanhao Bridge serves as a new landmark for a city transforming itself. Despite its eye catching design, Sanhao Bridge's real innovation is its efficient load carrying system, which combines girder and cable-stayed bridge capacities. The bridge, one of nine spanning the Hwun River, has a total of six lanes, with paths for pedestrians and bicycles on either side of the deck. Bridge planning and design are discussed by the author, and include challenges such as assembling the tower, whose leaves were prefabricated in sections, as well as employing a concrete girder without significantly increasing tower cost.