Photography courtesy Professor Xu Weiguo
It took two robotic arms just 450 hours to make this 3D-printed concrete bridge in Shanghai – officially the world’s longest.
The 26-metre-long bridge is located in Shanghai’s Baoshan District, and it features a distinctive rippled exterior, reminiscent of folded fabric and inspired by the historic Anji Bridge in Zhao County. It was designed by Tsinghua University’s team JCDA, led by Professor Xu Weiguo, and built using their own 3D-printing system.
The bridge’s pavement is based on the shape of brain corals, with white pebbles used to fill in the gaps. A monitoring system embedded in the bridge will allow the team to collect data on how much strain the structure is withstanding and how the concrete performs over time.
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