2022. 7. 1

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.117
Message to Mark Inauguration as JSCE President
I was appointed as the 110th president of JSCE at the General Meeting held on June 10.
JSCE has a long history, and I feel a great sense of responsibility in being appointed thisrole. Amidst this once-in-a-century set of circumstances with the coronavirus pandemic
and the situation in Ukraine, I have been put in charge of steering the future of JSCE.
Civil engineering must play a part in solving such global issues. In this sense, JSCEmust also pay close attention to what is happening around the world.
JSCE is unique. Why? Because domestically it has not split and become independent
from The Japan Federation of Engineering Societies but continued to assist theFederation, and internationally because it is one of the few organizations where

Photographer: Rumiko Ito

Tamon Ueda
110th JSCE President

engineers from industry, government, and academia come together to undertake engineering activities.
Accordingly, JSCE was founded more recently than compared to other societies, and it can be said thatorganizations like JSCE do not typically exist in other countries, or even if such an organization does exist, itsactivities do not carry much weight. That is, JSCE is, globally speaking, a rare organization that can deal withvarious issues in the all-encompassing field of civil engineering. I hope that all the members of the society willtake advantage of this feature to use JSCE to contribute where possible as a civil engineer or a civil engineeringstakeholder to help resolve domestic and international issues.
The current civil engineering situation in Japan is by no means positive. The construction market has been
shrinking over the long term, and civil engineering as a research field is considered to be not as essential asother fields. In fact, the reason for this is thought to be that the civil engineering capacity of Japan is inferior tothat of major overseas countries. Under the 108th president, Hitoshi Ieda, JSCE conducted an “Infrastructure
Report Card” initiative to clarify the reality of the situation, and under the 109th president, Hiroaki Taniguchi,
JSCE highlighted a future vision for civil engineering with the “Big Picture of Civil Engineering.” As my project
as president, I will focus on civil engineering human resources, and by having researchers and engineers
understand what Japan is capable of and engaging in discussions with each other, I will build a platform to createa path to develop individuals who can solve global issues in the future. Furthermore, I will aim to create civilengineering projects that are accepted by other countries.
To finish, I would like to inform you about the initiating of a collaborative effort between the Architectural
Institute of Japan and JSCE that was created in 2021 to realize the ultimate vision for the Japanese construction
field in collaboration with the construction field, whose status is subsiding just like that of the civil engineering

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field. This collaboration is also important for tackling global issues.
During this year as president, I will do my best to ensure JSCE contributes further tosociety by looking at things from new perspectives. I ask for your understanding andcooperation, and I look forward to hearing what you think via the JSCE feedback page(「多門に多聞&多問」： https://committees.jsce.or.jp/chair/).

Suez Canal Bridge Maintenance and Repair Project

Suez Canal BridgeStretching over the Suez Canal, which sees some of the world’s largest vessels pass through its waters, the Suez
Canal Bridge was completed in October 2001 as a project undertaken with grant aid from the Japanese
government. Built in the desert across the Suez Canal, the Suez Canal Bridge has pylons standing about 140
meters tall (with a 70-meter clearance under the bridge), which is roughly the same height as the Great Pyramidof Giza, and is shaped like a magnificent ancient Egyptian-style cable-stayed bridge inspired by the Pharaonicobelisks (an ancient Egyptian monument). By connecting the mainland of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, theSuez Canal Bridge is an important route that contributes significantly to facilitating logistics and networking aswell as regional development as a symbol connecting African and Asian.

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In 2010, more than eight years after the bridge opened, damage was confirmed to some of the piers and part of
the road surface, and after a follow-up survey by those involved on the Japanese side, work to repair thesubstructure, road surface, and steel deck plate was carried out from 2012 to 2016 as follow-up construction
work involving the parties on both sides.
With regards to the substructure, the damage to the piers was particularly serious, and the peeling of the surface
concrete and the corrosion of the reinforcing steel bars were so severe that they were of a level not witnessed inJapan. It came to light that the damage was caused by a large salt pan on the east side of the bridge and a large
amount of condensation due to low temperatures at night. The repair work saw the removal of damaged partsand reinforcing steel bar rust, and the imperfections were filled with repair mortar before coating the surface.
As for the damage to the steel deck plate under the road surface, it was presumed that the main cause was therusting of the steel deck plate caused by cracks in the road surface from the frequent passing of heavy military
vehicles (loaded with rocks and estimated to weigh around 50-60 tons) over the bridge and subsequent water
ingress due to the occurrence of condensation (a large build-up of water was confirmed in the drainage basin
even during the dry months of the year). As a result of examining possible ways to repair this damage, a finegrained asphalt road surface that has maintained its structural integrity for at least 10 years in other projects inEgypt was adopted.
The series of surveys and repair work on the Suez Canal Bridge made the engineers of the ministry ofconstruction of Egypt (GARBLT: General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport) aware of theimportance of maintenance, and instruction and construction management were conducted focusing on whether
the repair work that may occur again in the future could be carried out by Egyptian engineers and contractors.
While everyone recognized the importance of bridge maintenance, this work made us aware of how difficult it
is to propose an appropriate maintenance method that is suited to the specific circumstances in the said country
and the technical capabilities of the organization that carries out maintenance. There is a tendency to impose
Japan’s technological capabilities on developing countries, but the key is to cooperate from the perspective oftraining engineers in the respective country while adjusting to the specific circumstances in the country.

Substructure Repair Work

Removal of Rust on Reinforcing Steel Bars
Rust on Piers

Rust on Piers

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Egyptian Engineers Inspecting Rust Prevention
Coating

Filling of Repair Mortar

Egyptian Engineers Inspecting Japanese Company’sConstruction Work

Site Tour Explanation by Egyptian Engineer

Road Surface & Steel Deck Plate Repair Work

Cracks in Road Surface

Rust on Surface of Steel Deck Plate (#1)

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Rust on Surface of Steel Deck Plate (#2)

Measuring Reduction in Thickness of Steel Deck Plate

Sandblasting Treatment of Steel Deck Plate Surface

Applying Primer After Surface Treatment of Steel
Deck Plate【Reported by Tatso Mukoyama (Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.)】5FY2021 JSCE Awards

FY2021 JSCE Awards Ceremony

Twenty-eight civil engineers including seven non-Japanese engineers were recognized with International
Lifetime Contribution Award, Continuing International Contribution Award, and International Outstanding
Collaboration Award on June 10, 2022. The recipients by award are listed in the table below.
For further details, please visit http://www.jsce-int.org/a_t/international .

< International Lifetime Contribution Award: 4 recipients >The Award recognizes (1) Japanese civil engineers for their significant contributions to the development of civilengineering technology and/or the infrastructure development through their professional practices in and outside
Japan; (2) non-Japanese civil engineer(s) for his/her commendable achievements to the progress and promotion ofJapanese civil engineering.
NAME
Naoki Kita
Yasushi Nakagawa
Susumu Naruse
Kenzo Hiroki

AFFILIATIONSHIMIZU CORPORATIONTEKKEN CORPORATIONMIYAJI ENGINEERING GROUP, INC.
The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

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< Continuing International Contribution Award: 17 recipients >The Award recognizes young professionals who have made and will make a significant contribution to thedevelopment of civil engineering and/or the development of infrastructure outside Japan with their unique andinspiring perspectives and solid technical skills.

NAME
Yoshihisa Asada

AFFILIATION
Oriental Consultants Global
Co., Ltd.
The Kansai Electric Power
Company, Incorporated
Electric Power Development
Co., Ltd.
Dai Nippon Construction

NAME
Yuichi Takemura

AFFILIATIONSHIMIZU CORPORATION

Koji Naito

Takumi Kodaki

TOBISHIMACORPORATION

Hirotsugu MoriCTI Engineering International
Co., Ltd.
OBAYASHICORPORATION
EAST JAPAN RAILWAYCOMPANY
Japan International
Cooperation Agency

Kenichiro Kobayashi

Kyoto University

Mitsuhiro Yao

Yoshimoto Koyanagi

Japan International
Cooperation Agency
The Port and Airport ResearchInstitute
TAISEI CORPORATION

Dai Yamashita

Koichi Ota
Gou Orukawa
Osamu Kutami

Shinji Sassa
Masakazu Sota

Hideki Fukami
Futoshi Mitsuhata

Kenji Yoshikawa

Ministry of Land,Infrastructure, Transport andTourism
PENTA-OCEANCONSTRUCTION CO., LTD
Kajima Overseas Asia
(Singapore)< International Outstanding Collaboration Award: 7 recipients >The Award recognizes foreigners who has made contributions to the development of civil engineering in Japan orother countries, through the exchange and collaboration with Japan, and is expected to play an active role in theprogress and development of civil engineering field.

NAME

AFFILIATIONMasanori Teddy Kartasasmita

Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nguyen Quoc Thai

Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.

Nguyen Trung VietThuyloi University

Jian-Guo Dai

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Noel Sun Aguas

TAISEI CORPORATION

Panganayi Cleopatra

Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.

Jan Dirk Schmoecker

Kyoto University

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FY2021 JSCE Awards CelebrationUpdates◆The 10th Civil Engineer’s Lounge “DOBOKU” (Japanese)
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/284◆JSCE-ASCE Infrastructure Resilience Research Grouphttps://www.infraresil.jp/◆2022 JSCE Annual Meeting International Program (Japanese)
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/286◆JSCE Feedback Web Form「多門に多聞&多問」
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/chair/node/59◆The International Infrastructure Archives– A Compilation of Japan’s Greatest Projects in Transfer of Civil Engineering Technology in Service –http://www.jsce.or.jp/e/archive/◆JSCE Concrete Committee Newsletter No.65, May 2022
https://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/newsletter65/index.html◆IAC “News Pick Up!!” on the JSCE Japanese website
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/iac_dayori_2022

8◆Summary of featured articles in JSCE Magazine Vol. 107, No.7 July 2022http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine◆Journal of JSCE
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/journalofjsce◆5th Japan Construction International Award
https://www.mlit.go.jp/JCIA/en/award/5/◆The 9th Civil Engineering Conference in the Asian Region (CECAR9)
https://cecar9.com/◆The 4th Asian Concrete Federation (ACF) Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Structural Longevity(ACF2022_ETSL): https://acf2022.aconf.org/index.html◆American Society of Civil Engineers（ASCE）
・ASCE Convention 2022
https://www.asce.org/education-and-events/events/meetings/asce-convention-2022/◆The 9th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM9)
https://www.icfm9.jp/index.html§ IAC News Subscription §The IAC News is one of the communication tools to share information and ideas with the members. We would like to invite
you, your friends and colleagues to join the communication and to subscribe the IAC News. Please register online:(http://www.jsce-int.org/node/150). We look forward to meeting you.
§ IAC Facebook §Recent activity of International Activities Center is introduced on this Facebook. Please see this home page(https://www.facebook.com/JSCE.en).
Comments and Questions
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