Sustainable development is a holistic concept that has been becoming more important in bridge engineering since last decades. The reason is mainly related to the need of resource conservation to ensure a sustainable growth in human society. Sustainability deals with durability, maintenance, environmental impact, life cycle, risk assessment and so on. It associates with uncertainty assessment and optimization procedure for engineers to choose an optimal design, construction, maintenance, and so on. In the multi-dimensional design approach, the ecologic, economic and social effects have to be jointly considered.
Jointless bridge refers to a bridge with continuous superstructure and without expansion joints between the outer ends of approach slabs, which can meet the sustainable development, and has been widely used in developed countries and is being promoted in developing countries. Due to the elimination of expansion joints and sometimes even bearings, jointless bridge, with initial economic investment and long-term durability, can provide traffic with low noise and smooth riding surfaces, minimize maintenance cost caused by repair and replacement of expansion joints as well as water leakage, and also improve the capability against disaster.
In order to promote the application and development of jointless bridges, the International Association of Jointless Bridges (IAJB) was established in 2014. Since then, workshops on jointless bridges have been yearly held in China and the United States. In the workshops, the jointless bridge terminology, outline of the guideline, technical development directions were discussed and significant progress was made in this field.
The 1st and 2nd International Symposium on Jointless & Sustainable Bridges (ISJSB’2016 and ISJSB’2019) were successfully organized in 2016 and 2019 with experts and scholars from United States, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Germany, UK, Turkey, China. In-depth discussions and exchanges on topics such as design, construction, maintenance and retrofitting of bridges without expansion joints were conducted.
Following the previous events, the 3rd International Symposium on Jointless & Sustainable Bridges (ISJSB’2021) will be held in Shenzhen, China, on October 21-24, 2021.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is our honor to invite you to participate in and bring your contribution to ISJSB’2021.
For the last updates on ISJSB2021, please visit the website of the International Association of Jointless Bridges (http://jointlessbridges.fzu.edu.cn/) and the official websites of participating organizations. Please stay tuned with us.
We look forward to welcoming you at ISJSB’2021.