At the end of 2007, Shanghai Municipal Engineering Administration Bureau received a letter from a British engineering design company, which stated that "the design service life of Waibaidu Bridge is 100, and it has expired, so please pay attention to the maintenance of this bridge", and also emphasized that "it is recommended to use wooden pile foundation and concrete hollow slab pier to repair underwater concrete abutment".
This letter was sent by Howard erskine Company, the design and construction unit of Shanghai Waibaidu Bridge one hundred years ago. All the drawings were hand-painted on August 25th 1903, and a set of drawings kept by the Chinese side has been kept in Shanghai Urban Construction Archives. 1947 after 40 years of safe use, it was found that the abutment sank thirteen centimeters and was strengthened. This is the first large-scale maintenance of Waibaidu Bridge.
From the piling of 1906 and the completion of 1907 to 2007, the Waibaidu Bridge experienced three dynasties: the late Qing Dynasty (4 years), the Republic of China (38 years) and New China (6 1 year), and the British Howard Company changed four or five generations. According to China people's thinking, they have a hundred reasons. Apart from Zhao Zhouqiao and Qiantang River Bridge, we have a hundred names of designers and builders who may completely ignore a bridge. What makes me feel is not only the indestructible internal quality of the Waibaidu Bridge over the past century, but also that we can receive such a silent letter after a hundred years, but a business commitment that the other party will not care about at all, which will enable the arrogant British to perform their duties humbly and meticulously for a hundred years. This letter makes me feel once again that we have always ignored or even mentioned this common-sense problem-professional awareness.