The span is expected to promote regional economic integration between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, two of the most prosperous regions in the country, and across the entire Yangtze River Delta.
Built to withstand typhoons that hit the eastern seaboard, as well as shifting soil conditions, the concrete-and-steel bridge took three years to complete and was one of China's most challenging construction projects. Firecrackers and traditional dancers greeted more than a thousand guests at a ceremony in the middle of the bridge as engineers finished work on the final construction block yesterday.
The 36-kilometer Hangzhou Bay Bridge starts at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 70 kilometers from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.
It will reduce the present 400-kilometer drive between the two major port cities by 120 kilometers and shave about an hour off the trip.
In the next few months, workers will begin surfacing work and expect to finish that part of the project by the end of November. The bridge is scheduled to go into service before the Beijing Summer Olympics begins in August 2008, said Jin Jianming, the project's deputy chief.
Bridge managers have proposed to Zhejiang government that vehicles pay a toll of 80 yuan, according to a previous Oriental Morning Post report. Daily traffic volume has been estimated at 45,000 vehicles during the bridge's first year of operation. The speed limit will be set at 100 kilometers per hour.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is a cable-stayed structure that cost 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.55 billion). About 30 percent of the funds for the project came from China's private sector - the first such investment in China.
The Hangzhou Bay span beats Shanghai's Donghai Bridge - the previous world record holder when it was completed in May 2005 - by 3.5 kilometers. Its length also exceeds the 25.23-kilometer Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in the United States