China has planned to build a new bay bridge to incorporate more
burgeoning cities and towns into the economic power house of the
Yangtze River Delta, an official said.
The projected bridge will be the second to span Hangzhou Bay
south to the economic hub of Shanghai, and it is expected to halve
the journey between Shanghai and Shaoxing, the southern end of the
shortcut in Zhejiang Province.
The plan has been approved by the National Development and
Reform Commission, and preparatory work has been completed,
Shaoxing Mayor Zhang Jinru told a meeting for scholars of Shaoxing
origin that was held in Shanghai on Monday.
The budget is 11.6 billion yuan (US$1.59 billion) and
construction will start this year, according to Zhang.
The new bridge system will be 69 kilometers long, including a 12
km section above the ocean, and will start from Haining in Jiaxing,
Zhejiang Province, in the north, and end at Shangyu, Shaoxing in
the south.
"The projected new bridge will play an important role in
incorporating Shaoxing and central Zhejiang into the Yangtze River
Delta, especially bringing the Zhejiang regions within the Shanghai
metropolitan ring of two hours' bus ride. It will also take
advantage of the opportunities from the Shanghai World Expo in
2010," said the mayor.
Meanwhile, Chinese workers have completed the first bridge
spanning Hangzhou Bay. This bridge, which links Haiyan, Jiaxing
City to Cixi, Ningbo City, in Zhejiang Province, is 36 km long and
is considered the world's longest sea-spanning structure.
The first part of the bridge, with a 32-km section spanning the
sea, is a cable-stayed structure built at a cost of 11.8 billion
yuan. It will cut the length of the trip from Shanghai to Ningbo by
120 km when it opens to traffic in March. It is designed to last
100 years.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)