Houston Community News >> China to Complete 22 Mile Long Bridge
6/26/2007-- A 22-mile long
bridge that its builders claim is the world's longest sea-crossing structure was
formally linked-up Tuesday just south of the business hub of Shanghai.
The bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay,
cutting the distance between them from about 250 miles to just 50 miles.
Officials welded together a final section to complete the link at a ceremony
attended by several hundred workers from the various companies building the
bridge.
Costing $1.54 billion, the structure will open to traffic next year following
completion of the six-lane roadway.
The bridge, a mix of viaducts and cable-stayed spans to allow shipping to pass
beneath, lies just south of the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most
economically vital regions which is undergoing a massive construction boom aimed
at boosting transport links.
Just north of Shanghai, builders this month connected the final link in 20-mile
long bridge across the Yangtze, said to be the longest cable-stayed structure of
its kind.
Construction on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge began in 2003 with a percentage of its
financing coming from private sources, a first for such a large Chinese
infrastructure project.
(Contributed by AP)