Ninety-three-year-old professor Sun Jun has devoted his life to working on China’s giant construction projects, including the Qinghai-Tibet highway, Three Gorges Dam, and the Yangtze River Tunnel. In his latest project, the Tongji University academic served as a senior adviser on the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
Under the guidance of Sun, Xu Wei, a professor in Tongji and Sun’s student, took over technical assistance for the construction of the bridge. “Every time I saw Sun and other professors working on the bridge, I felt at ease,” said Lin Ming, the general project manager. Lin initially invited an experienced Dutch company to serve as the technical assistant for the project. The company wanted to charge US $171 million. He then asked for help from Xu along with experts in Tongji University.
The methods developed by Tongji University reduced the impact of the bridge on the Chinese white dolphin, which is under first class state protection. Another key challenge during the construction of the bridge was the 6.7-km underwater tunnel, the world’s longest and deepest undersea tunnel. Ding Wenqi, who was nicknamed the “tunnel expert”, was asked to ensure the tubes be connected perfectly — even under the influences of land subsidence, water pressure and tide movement. Hu Xiangdong, another professor with Tongji, developed a method to freeze the earth around the tunnel to prevent water leakage and land subsidence during the digging of the most challenging 2-km section of the tunnel.
The tunnel section of the project was completed in May 2017. Sun was invited to visit the near-completed bridge again in February 2018. The expert said he felt the most relaxed this time since most of the challenges have been conquered. “In the next step, we should focus on how to make the two artificial islands more beautiful and attract travelers,” Sun said. Xu said he took a great pride in watching the TV news of the bridge’s official opening on Wednesday.
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