The world's first bridge for both cars and trains with a range of more than 1,000 meters was opened to traffic on July 1 in Nam Thong, Jiangsu Province. The bridge is expected to strongly promote the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and boost the economy of one of China's most developed regions - People's Daily quoted information from the China Railway Group as saying.
The Shanghai - To Chau - Nam Thong bridge on the Yangtze River is 11,072 meters long, each span is 1,092 meters apart. It took 6 years and 4 months to build a bridge between Nam Thong and Truong Gia Cang, a district-level city in To Chau town, Giang To province.
Wang Feng, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Corp, said that many new technologies have been used to build cable-stayed bridges, including advanced anti-collision systems and cables with the world's largest elasticity.
"The collision prevention system can warn waterway vehicles within 3 km if a ship is likely to crash into a bridge piers," said Mr. Wang.
Each cable of the bridge's 432 cables can lift up to 1,000 tons, weighing nearly 600 cars. A total of 480,000 tons of steel were used to build the bridge.
As the second road and railway bridge in Jiangsu, after the Nanjing bridge on the Yangtze river, the newly opened bridge will help reduce frequent traffic congestion on the two bridges across the Yangtze river in Nam Thong and Vo Tich. Travel time between Nam Thong and Vo Tich will be reduced by half, to 40 minutes.
With a designed speed of 200 km/h, the new bridge will also reduce travel time between Shandong and Shanghai - China's economic center - from 3.5 hours to just 1 hour and 6 minutes.
From Nam Thong, the railway line goes into Shanghai through Truong Gia Cang, Thuong Thuc (Changshu) and Thai Thuong (Taicang) in To Chau, Giang To province.
China is famous for its bridges with many "precious things" in the world. On October 23, 2018, China opened the world's longest suspension bridge under the sea after 9 years of construction. Including the approach road, this overpass is 55km long connecting Hong Kong, Ma Cao and Zhuhai City in mainland China.
On September 25, 2019, China completed the main structure of the world's longest sea-crossing railway - road bridge in Fujian province, considered a bridge over the "Three Devils of Bermuda Asia".
