Society

World's longest cross-sea bridge to open in June

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-09 16:47

JINAN - Qingdao Bay Bridge in East China's Shandong province, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, is expected to open to automobiles in June, sources with the bridge's construction headquarters said Monday.

The road over the bridge is scheduled to be completed in 10 days, according to an engineer with the headquarters.

The construction of the bridge has so far cost nearly 9 billion yuan ($1.39 billion), accounting for 94 percent of the budget, he said.

The bridge, linking the urban district of the port city Qingdao to its Huangdao district, is 41.58 kilometers long.

The bridge will shorten the route between the two centers by 30 kilometers, cutting travel time down to around 20 minutes.

China started research and planning work for the project eight years ago, with construction work beginning in 2007.

Currently, the longest cross-sea bridge in use in the world is the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge in New Orleans, the United States, which is around 38.4 km long. Prior to the Qingdao Bay Bridge, the longest sea bridge in China was the 36 km long Hangzhou Bay Cross-sea Bridge that connects the cities of Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.