Rong (Dragon) Bridge, which spans the Han River in the central city of Da Nang, won the 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award during the annual Outstanding Projects and Leaders Gala in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The award was announced last week in the US.

Dragon Bridge at night.

The 666m Vietnamese bridge, designed by Louis Berger and Ammann & Whitney, beat tough contenders to win the award.

“We’re thrilled to win this award,” Ammann & Whitney CEO and President Nick Ivanoff said.“We certainly want to commend all the finalists, as well as all the individuals who received wonderful honors today.”

The bridge is shaped like a dragon and was inaugurated on Đà Nẵng’s Liberation Day in 2013. The dragon’s head is designed to spit fire and spray water. The 500m-long body of the dragon was built using five 1.2m arched steel pipes weighing 1,000 tonnes in total. The six-lane bridge is illuminated by 5,000 LED lights at night.

ASCE’s annual OCEA Award honors projects that best illustrate superior civil engineering skills and represent a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society. The award celebrates the contributions of many engineers, honoring an overall project, rather than an individual.

Dragon Bridge also claimed the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Diamond Award in the category of structural systems in the 2014 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition.

ASA Lighting Design Studio Company designed the bridge’s lighting design, which won the Lighting Design award at the 2013 FX International Design Awards in London.

Đà Nẵng’s department of transport registered the bridge for the Guinness World Record as the ‘largest steel dragon’. 

VNS