The Chinese infrastructure project involved the construction of several bridges, tunnels and man-made islands at the Pearl River delta. The actual connection across the Pearl River is around 35 km long and consists of a combination of bridge constructions and a road tunnel. Starting from Hong Kong Airport on the island of Lantau, the building project has a total length of around 55 kilometres; this includes a 6.7 kilometre long underwater tunnel and a 23 kilometre long bridge across the sea. They will in future allow access from the million-strong metropolis to the former Portuguese colony and now Special Administrative Region of Macao and the neighbouring city of Zhuhai.
After BUTTING in Tieling had already produced twenty rain collection pipes in advance for constructing the bridge, our affiliated company received a further order for the major project. BUTTING China was to prefabricate 16 so-called "tripods" with internal fire extinguisher pipes. They are to be built into the terminal building at the border crossing point on the bridge. The production weight of these special components amounts to five tonnes each. Jens Ellermann, Managing Director of BUTTING China, states: "The special thing about these two projects for us was focusing on the optical appearance: Butt-welds were ground flat, all surfaces were pickled and polished while maintaining the grinding direction. We had to ensure a perfect surface."
During the construction phase there were several typhoons in Hong Kong, which considerably delayed progress at the building sites and provision of the production data. Thus BUTTING had only one month to manufacture the designer pieces. Thanks to flexible staff planning and direct transport by lorry from the production site in Tieling to the building site in Hong Kong more than 3,000 kilometres away, BUTTING China was able to comply with the agreed tight delivery schedules. Much to the customer's pleasure.
BUTTING – Progress by Tradition