World's Longest 3D Printed Bridge

The world’s longest 3D printed bridge has opened in Shanghai, China.

The 26 meters long and 3 meters wide bridge was produced by the team led by professor Xu Weiguo from the Tsinghua University School of Architecture’s Zoina Land Joint Research Center for Digital Architecture (JCDA) in Beijing and was based on 1,400 years old Anji bridge in Zhaoxian, China’s oldest standing arched bridge.

According to JCDA, the bridge marks the entry of China’s 3D concrete printing and construction technology into the world’s advanced level.

The arched bridge is consists of 44 3D printed concrete units that was printed piece by piece for a total of 450 hours using two robotic-arms 3D printing system and said that cost less than a traditional bridge.

The bridge is embedded with a monitoring system that will record how the concrete deforms over time. This information will be used to further help develop the use of 3D printing for engineering.