Xiaoqing River Grand Bridge is 1230.5m long and 33m wide with eight lanes. It has an orthotropic steel deck structure with a top plate thickness of 14mm. Due to the increased height of the bridge deck, the construction of the bridge on-site has become more challenging as UHPC needs to be pumped to the bridge deck through secondary pumping. The low water-cement ratio of UHPC, with mix of microspheres and fibers, results in poor workability and difficult to pump.

The development of Ultra-highly Dispersing PCE by the project team enables UHPC to achieve an initial flow of 720mm, improving the workability of UHPC, increasing the compressive strength to 135MPa, and fully meeting the engineering requirements of the Xiaoqinghe Grand Bridge pavement project. In this bridge pavement project, 25t of super-dispersant water-reducing agent was used, which can reduce CO2 emissions by 20%.

This project is another successful demonstration of large-tonnage and long-distance full-section construction of UHPC bridge deck in China. The use of Ultra-highly Dispersing PCE reduces the amount of adhesive material and water-cement ratio, reduces carbon emissions, significantly improves the comprehensive performance of UHPC, and greatly reduces costs.