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.
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.
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