The Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze Road Bridge, the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge, has been formally opened in east China’s Jiangsu Province after five years of construction.
The bridge, linking the two cities of Nantong and Suzhou, runs 32.4 kilometers, with 8,146 meters spanning the Yangtze, China’s longest waterway. It has three lanes each way.
The bridge, 108 kilometers upstream from the Yangtze’s mouth, joins the national highway network on the both banks.
You Qingzhong, provincial director of transportation, said, ‘The journey between Shanghai and Nantong now only takes one hour, but previously it took almost four hours, including the ferry trip. With the bridge, it takes just seven minutes to drive across the Yangtze.’
The bridge has undergone a month-long trail, which saw a daily flow of 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles, before theformal opening ceremony .
English People’s Daily Online reported the bridge was built at a cost of RMB7.89 billion ($1.15 billion.) It is the most complicated bridge project in China’s history, setting several technical records.
It has the world’s longest span of 1,088 meters, usurping the previous record holder, the Tatara Bridge in Japan, which has a main span of 890 meters.
It also used the longest bridge cable of 577 meters, 100 meters longer than Tatara’s record.