Fwd: World's longest sea bridge opens in China...
Indra Kumara Perera
From: Palitha Wimalaweera <palith...@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 06:39:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: World's longest sea bridge opens in China...
To: Anton Gajasinghe <antonga...@yahoo.com>, athu...@yahoo.com
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
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
£960million 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