A-bridge Crossover Story: Opportunities from Cooperative Multi-cultural Exchange

In parallel to the Panama Canal Expansion, the Third Bridge over the Panama Canal is currently under construction 3.5 kilometers north of the Third Set of Locks on the Atlantic side. Designed by a Chinese-US consortium and contracted as a Design-Bid-Build project, both the design and technical specifications for the Atlantic Bridge, including those relevant to concrete works, are mainly based on AASHTO, ACI and ASTM criteria. As the Atlantic Bridge is located in a high-salinity maritime environment, the major structures of the bridge, other than those for the cable-stay system, are to be built with reinforced concrete. The durability of such structures is of a paramount importance for the project. Therefore, hybrids of both, prescriptive and performance-based technical specifications were put together to ensure that service-life requirements would be fulfilled. Per the Contract, the development of the different concrete mixes was the full and exclusive responsibility of the French construction Contractor. Compliance with both durability requirements and constructability was a significant technical challenge for the Contractor. After the Owner organized a cooperative series of workshops, a feasible technical solution was achieved by means of incorporating certain provisions from European Standards into the Contract. As a result of these collaborative efforts, the Contractor was able to commence the works for the foundations of the project. This paper highlights the challenges, pitfalls, benefits and opportunities derived from international cooperative collaboration with a multi-cultural and multi-standard perspective.