Cross-river structures in Jiangsu aim to solve province's traffic woes

Some 30 structures, including bridges, subway and road tunnels, will span the Yangtze River in Jiangsu by 2025, according to the provincial Transport Bureau.

Lu Yongquan, director of the bureau, said the province has been researching the problem of traffic crossing the river for years. There are frequent traffic jams, especially during peak periods.

"But it will be much easier for the public by 2025, when the problem will basically be solved," Lu said.

The Yangtze, China's longest river and the third-longest in the world, flows through eight of the province's 13 cities. It runs for more than 430 kilometers in Jiangsu, dividing the province into southern and northern areas.

Fourteen structures spanning the river have been built in the province, and six others, including the No 5 Yangtze River Bridge and the Shanghai-Nantong Bridge, are under construction.

The No 5 bridge, located between the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the No 3 bridge, will be 10.3 km long and 35.6 meters wide on completion. With a designed maximum traffic speed of 100 km/h, the deck of the six-lane project will be installed by the end of this month.

Parts of the bridge, some weighing as much as 180 metric tons, are being produced at the Treasure Bridge Factory in the neighboring city of Yangzhou before being shipped along the Yangtze to Nanjing for installation.

Construction of the bridge was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2016. It is scheduled for completion next year.

Other bridges spanning the river have taken longer to build.

In 1956, the State Council put forward a plan to construct the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, but the project was not completed until 1968.

The second structure to cross the river in the province, the Jiangyin Yangtze River Bridge, which was completed in 1999, was China's first super-large steel box girder suspension bridge, with a span of more than 1,000 meters.

In 2005, when the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge was completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in China and the third-longest globally.

In 2008, work was completed on the Sutong Yangtze River Bridge. At 1,088 meters, it had the longest main span in the world for a cable-stayed bridge at the time. The project won the 2010 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Han Dazhang, chief bridge engineer with the China Design Group, said: "Jiangsu province has the largest and most complicated bridges on the Yangtze River. While the first bridge had a main span of just 120 meters, most of those now spanning the river have a main span of about 1,000 meters.

"It was not unusual for the bridges in Jiangsu to break world records, highlighting China's advanced bridge-constructing skills."

(China Daily 04/17/2019 page2)