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Time flies.
When I heard of the idea to build a bridge crossing the Hangzhou Bay, I was pretty shocked - to build a long bridge and cross the sea seems to be a joke when I first heard about it. I remember it was just few years ago.
Time flies.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is going to open to public by the end of April.
About the Bridge
The bridge, starting from Jinshan in Shanghai and ending at Cixi in Ningbo, crosses the Hangzhou Bay, and connect the two important cities in China - a bigger one: Shanghai, and a smaller one: Ningbo. This bridge is 36 km in length (still not as long as the Donghai Bridge, which is 46 km), however, it is still the longest sea-cross bridge in the world. It cut the distance between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 km, by passing Zhejiang's capital city, Hangzhou.
Google Earth Image
Look at the Google Earth Image below:
These images are not updated yet - how can people imagine the speed of huge projects like the bridge to proceed so quickly! However, from the updated tile above, we can barely see a white line, which is the bridge!
Let's zoom in and you can see the bridge more clearly in the photo below:
Continue to zoom in and you can see the poles and the bridge. As you can see, it is still under construction when the photo was taken. Now, it is already completed, and ready to be opened next month. For the third time, I want to say, time flies!
On the land, huge viaducts are being constructed as well. As you can see from this image, the constructor has huge ambition to connect the bridge to all kinds of destination they can.
Looking Forward to Drive on the Bridge
Just as Donghai Bridge, it is exciting to see on the map, but may not as exciting to drive on it, I expect the driving experience may not as great as it sounds to be. However, it should be like a powerful money line to connect two of the important important economic powers of the Yangtze delta. It is also noteworthy that it makes Shanghai closer to the Beilun Port in Ningbo - a big thing for Shanghai.
With the completion of this bridge, the network of highway of Zhejiang and Shanghai continue to merge. I will put more attention to the high ways in the future.
Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at March 23, 2008 12:00 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer
and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20080323_hangzhou_bay_bridge_to_open.htm
Is this the bridge where they contractor was caught using sub-standard building materials?
Posted by: Micah Sittig (external link) on March 23, 2008 12:56 PMHmm.... Micah, not sure about this bridge - didn't hear about the news in particular. However, one sad question to ask is, is there any bridge currently built in China use standard building materials?
Posted by: Jian Shuo (external link) on March 23, 2008 1:35 PMYup, the bridge is scheduled to open on May 1st. It's big news for Ningbo! If anyone wants to read Ningbo's English magazine, it's at http://www.NingboGuide.com/
Posted by: Mr. Ningbo (external link) on March 25, 2008 4:42 PMoutstanding feat. i just knew the project from watching Discovery channel minutes ago.. & i cant help my self to google it right away.. which lands me here. anyway, i'm amazed at the engineering that make this happen!
Posted by: mation on April 6, 2008 11:08 AMwow. very well done. I have been searching for this bridge for a while. Strangely even the bridge's own web page, there is not solid information about anything. I'm quite surprised about that.
Micah's post raised my eye brows and made me wonder about the engineering part of the bridge, material and Chinese standards.
Posted by: tunca on May 2, 2008 8:08 AM