Motorcade crosses Hangzhou Bay Bridge in test run

2008年05月04日 浙江在线新闻网站

HANGZHOU Bay Bridge started trial operation this afternoon as a motorcade of 180 sedans and 22 buses drove across the world's longest sea bridge at 3:40pm.

The 36-kilometer bridge is scheduled to open to the public at 11:58pm today.

The bridge begins at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 70 kilometers from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

It will reduce the 400-kilometer drive between Ningbo and Shanghai by 120 kilometers and shave about one hour off the trip.

About 2.45 million tons of concrete and 800,000 tons of steel were used to build the bridge. Construction took four years and was completed in June 2007.

The bridge is expected to help boost economic development in the Yangtze Delta Region.

With a design life of 100 years, the 11.8-billion-yuan (US$1.69 billion) bridge has six lanes with a designed speed of up to 100 kilometers per hour.

Large trucks will only be allowed in the middle lane in either direction due to safety concerns.

Speeds will be reduced to 60 kilometers per hour during bad weather. It will be closed if visibility falls below 50 meters.

Initially, cargo trucks with dangerous substances will not be allowed on the bridge.

About 40,000 automobiles are expected to cross the bridge each day at first and that is forecast to increase gradually to its design capacity of 100,000 cars a day in 2026.

Toll fees are expected to be 80 yuan.

来源： Shanghai Daily 作者： 编辑： 侯玮