China Completes World's Longest Dual-use Sea-crossing Bridge

Two sections of the Pingtan cross-strait road-rail bridge in East China's Fujian Province have been connected and the bridge is expected to open to traffic in 2020.

Constructed by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd (MBEC), it is China's first sea-crossing bridge built to carry vehicles as well as trains. It's the longest such bridge in the world.

The 16.34-kilometer structure has a designed speed of 100 kilometers per hour on the upper level with six lanes for cars and a double-lane Class I railway with a projected speed of 200 kilometers per hour on the bottom.

According to Wang Donghui, deputy chief engineer of MBEC, as it is located in one of the world's three top wind gaps and major storm tide areas in the world, construction crews had to conquer difficulties of wind, waves, deep water and fast currents.

Under such conditions, the bridge is regarded as one of the most difficult-to-build of its kind anywhere.

Construction of the bridge started in November 2013. During construction, several advanced technologies were used for the first time in the country.

For example, it was the first time 4.9-meter super-large diameter drilled piles were adopted to construct the foundations.

The bridge is capable of withstanding even tenth grade winds and is sure to provide a safe operational environment for trains.

A major section of the newly built Fuzhou-Pingtan railway and Changle-Pingtan highway, the bridge is also a main expansion of the Hefei-Fuzhou railway and the Beijing-Fuzhou expressway.

Travel time from Fuzhou to Pingtan will be shortened to half an hour when the bridge opens, which will greatly affect the regional economic growth of the areas it connects.

The 16.34-kilometer Pingtan dual-use cross-strait bridge in East China's Fujian Province has a six-lane highway as its upper layer and a railway with a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour at the bottom. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)