Full Span Precast and Launching Construction in Taiwan’s High Speed Rail Project

Taiwan’s North to South High Speed Rail project, with total cost of US$15 Billion and design speed of 350^km/_hour, includes 251km of elevated bridge structure within its total length of 345^km. Among the bridge structures, 73% utilize full span precast and launching concrete construction techniques to achieve speedy, shortened construction periods and better quality control. It adopted the design-build delivery method to achieve single responsibility for construction in this private participated Build and Operate then Transfer to government program. The paper will briefly explain full span precast box girder of 30 to 35 meter weighing 750 to 840 ton and launching construction with several different types of launching equipment, precasting of the box girder process, storage yard quality control and launching techniques. The plant produced a 2 day cycle for each girder and reached 48 girders per month and a placement rate of 0.7 day per span installed. The design-build methods of assuring design quality and the independent checking process will be discussed. Taiwan High Speed Rail bridge structures’ design criteria will be outlined in the presentation.