China has opened the world’s longest sea bridge to general traffic. The bridge spans 42.4km (26.3 miles) to connect the eastern coastal city of Qingdao to the suburb of Huangdao, in Jiaozhou Bay.
The bridge passed construction tests on June 27 and it opened to traffic on June 30, along with an undersea tunnel. The bridge would easily cross the English Channel, which is 32km wide at its narrowest point.
It is 4km longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the US state of Louisiana. It took four years to build at an estimated cost of over 10bn Yuan ($1.55bn; £970m). The bridge is supported on more than 5,200 pillars. It is expected to carry more than 30,000 cars a day, and will reportedly cut the commuting time between Qingdao and Huangdao by up to 30 minutes.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
