China's newest bridge is also world's longest

2008年05月04日 浙江在线新闻网站

CHINA opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge yesterday afternoon, linking Shanghai with the booming port city of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.

A ceremony in the middle of the 36-kilometer cable-stay bridge, which spans Hangzhou Bay near Shanghai, marked the official opening before several hundred spectators.

The 11.8-billion-yuan (US$1.7 billion) Hangzhou Bay Bridge opened to traffic on a trial basis at 11:58 last night.

The bridge, with a 32km section spanning the East China Sea, begins at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 70km from Ningbo. It will reduce the 400-kilometer drive between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 kilometers and shave driving time between the two cities from four to two-and-a-half hours.

Trucks, heavily laden vehicles and vehicles carrying dangerous chemicals will be barred from the bridge during the trial period in a bid to ensure smooth traffic flow and safety, Xinhua news agency said.

"The bridge has become well-known and is expected to attract many visitors," said Jin Jianming, deputy chief supervisor of the bridge construction. "We haven't decided how long the trial period will last. That will depend on the condition of the bridge and we need time to improve operation management."

Construction of the bridge started in November 2003. About 2.45 million tons of concrete and 800,000 tons of steel were used to build the bridge. It was completed in June 2007.

About 40,000 vehicles are expected to cross the six-lane bridge each day at first, and this will increase gradually to its capacity of 100,000 vehicles a day in 2026.

The bridge has a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour, and the toll will be 80 yuan.

The bridge is China's first major public infrastructure project to receive investment from the country's private sector which funded almost 30 percent of the cost.

A waste water treatment plant with a daily capacity of 270,000 tons has been built near the bridge in Jiaxing to collect and treat waste water from neighboring areas, Xinhua said.

As a shortcut between Zhejiang and Shanghai, the bridge is expected to improve traffic in the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo triangle.

It will also help boost economic development in the Yangtze River Delta, which covers almost 100,000 square kilometers of land and is home to 72.4 million people.

"I think it will be easier for our company to recruit high caliber employees in the future. People prefer working in small cities like Cixi but living in big cities like Shanghai," said Sun Ningwei, vice president of the Xinhai Electric Co in Cixi.

"They can leave Shanghai for Cixi in the morning and go back in the afternoon. It's only about one and a half hours' drive," she told Xinhua.

来源： Shanghai Daily 作者： Lydia Chen 编辑： 侯玮