Guinness Certifies World’s Longest 3D Printed Concrete Bridge in China

Last year in February, a team at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture built a 26.3 meter long concrete bridge, claimed to be the world’s longest 3D printed bridge. Just this Tuesday, the bridge was certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s longest 3D printed concrete bridge.

Designed by Professor Xu Weiguo’s team at the university, and built by Shanghai Wisdom Bay Investment Management Company, the 3.6 meter wide pedestrian bridge was installed last year across a canal in Shanghai’s Baoshan district. The design of the bridge was based on that of China’s oldest standing bridge, the 1,400-year-old Anji (commonly known as Zhaozhou) Bridge in Zhaoxian (280 km south of Beijing).

While the ancient Anji bridge took over ten years to build, this 3D printed bridge was completed in just under 19 days.The new 3D printed bridge involved the printing of 176 concrete units by two robotic-arm 3D printing systems in under 450 hours. The material used for printing is a composite of polyethylene fibre concrete and admixtures.