World's longest sea bridge opens in
China ... (but don't think
about crossing it on foot, it's the length of a marathon)
· At 26.4
miles long, it is five miles further than the distance between Dover
and Calais
By DAILY MAIL
REPORTER
Last updated at 3:47 PM on 30th June 2011
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China
has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge - which stretches five
miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais.
The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links
China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao.
The road bridge, which is 110ft wide and is the
longest of its kind, cost nearly £1billion to build.
A bridge over misty waters: The immense £1billion
structure which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars stretches for
24 miles along China 's
eastern port city of Qingdao
to the offshore island Huangdao
Engineering feat: The vast bridge, the largest
cross-ocean bridge in the world, cost £960 million and took four years
to build
Chinese TV reports said the bridge passed
construction appraisals on Monday and it, along with an undersea
tunnel, would be opened for traffic today.
It took four years to build the bridge, which is
supported by more than 5,000 pillars across the bay, and it is almost
three miles longer than the previous record-holder - the Lake
Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana .
Lengthy: The bridge stretches into the distance
further than the eye can see and right, the first few cars roll out
across the surface
Open road: Drivers pass through the mist as they
make some of the first passes over the 110ft wide bridge which is
longer than any others of its kind
Flowers: The first vehicle runs into toll station to
the applause of staff and passers-by after the bridge opened to traffic
today
Musical mileage: A brass band plays on the sides of
the road as flags and banners herald in the opening of the bridge
The start of things to come: Two cars edge through
the toll gates that will raise revenue to maintain the £1billion bridge
That structure features two bridges running side by
side and is 23.87 miles long.
The three-way Qingdao Haiwan bridge is 174 times
longer than London 's
Tower Bridge ,
spanning the River Thames, but cuts only 19 miles off the drive from
Qingdao to
Huangdao.
Two separate groups of workers have been building it
from different ends of the structure since 2006.
After linking the two ends of the bridge on December
22, one engineer said: 'The computer models and calculations are all
very well but you can't relax until the two sides are bolted together.
Don't
keep me hanging: The suspension beams form an imposing sight as the
reach through the clouds and look down upon
colourful flags marking the bridge's grand opening
The long road home: The two roads which run
alongside each other wind across The Jiaozhou Bay
'Even a few centimetres out would have been a
disaster.'
The engineering feat will only hold the record as
the longest sea bridge for a few years - it will be beaten by another
Chinese bridge in the next decade. Last December officials announced workers had begun constructing
a bridge to link southern
Guangdong province with Hong Kong and
Macau .
Set to be completed in 2016,
officials said the £6.5billion bridge will span nearly 30 miles.
It will be designed
to cope with earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the
impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel.
But both structures will still be dwarfed by the
longest bridge in the world, also in
China .
The Danyang-Kunshan
Grand Bridge
is an astonishing 102 miles in length.
Record breaker: The Qingdao Jiaozhou bay bridge,
spanning 26.4 miles between Qingdao
and Huangdao, will open for traffic today
Impressive: Testing on the bridge was completed on
Monday and it is expected to be opened to traffic for the first time
today
A driver's dream: Twenty-four miles of fresh
untouched tarmac stretch from Qingdao
to Hungdao |
