A Landmark Bridge in Persian Gulf
Hyundai Engineering & Construciton (Hyundai E&C) will complete the world’s longest landmark bridge in Kuwait this year. It is building Sheik Jaber Causeway that connects Kuwait City to Subiyah New Town across Kuwait Bay.
The total length of the bridge to be completed this year is 48.53 km, including the 36.1 km long main bridge and the 12.43 km long Doha Link, another Hyundai E&C project under construction in Kuwait. It is about 7 km longer than Haiwan Bridge (41.58 km) in Qingdao, China.
In November 2013, Hyundai E&C won the US$2.62 billion project along with a local company (Combined Group). The Korean builder’s share of the project is 2.1 trillion won or 78% of the total construction cost. It is the largest civil engineering project landed by a Korean contractor since the waterway order from Libya in 1984.
The core of this project is the construction of the main bridge. The central part of the marine bridge, a 340 meter section, was built in the form of an asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, which requires high-level design and construction technology. In a commonly used design of cable-stayed bridges, bridge tops are connected with pylons through cables. But it is not common to build an asymmetric cable-stayed bridge. The main bridge of Sheikh Jaber Causeway connects cables to one side of its sail-shaped pylon.