Solving constructability issues of 2.2 km-long boardwalk under Hong Kong highway
The project and redesign
A pedestrian boardwalk beneath the Island Eastern Corridor elevated highway is a 2.2 km long landmark improving connectivity and accessibility along Victoria Harbour.
The original design hit a wall due to construction limitations. Two main elements were re-designed to solve construction issues: a part of the boardwalk designated as Span 38, and a fishing platform.
Tony Gee and Partners is engineering consultancy company. They are specialist consultants, mostly working with contractor clients. Their strength is in focus on constructability of their designs: they help the contractors through construction engineering and methods, along with adopting technologies to ensure sustainability and efficiency in costs and time.
Redesign of Span 38
The original design included four pre-bored socketed H-piles beneath IEC bridge deck, which were replaced by RC monopiles. But it faced installation challenges due to limited clearance under the road bridge – the pile rigging machine could not be operated safely and efficiently.
That’s why Tony Gee and Partners replaced socketed H-piles with RC monopiles, and redesigned spans for constructability. They introduced new steel framing system to transfer boardwalk load to existing IEC pile caps.
Redesign of the fishing platform
Originally, new piles in Span P59–P60 supported the RC superstructure. The design included 10 additional piles under fishing platform areas.
To create a lighter superstructure, the redesign introduced steel superstructure with RC slabs, and replacement of steel-concrete I-beams by full RC frame. This created a Span P59–P60, with approximately 25.4 meters between column stubs, and 11-meter overhang from P60 forming the fishing platform. In the new design, steel I-beams are supported by short steel column stubs, which are supported by IEC bridge pilecaps.