The Hangzhou Bay Bridge or "Great Trans-oceanic Hangzhou Bay Bridge" (杭州湾跨海大桥), is a cable-stayed bridge currently under construction across Hangzhou Bay off the eastern coast of China. When completed, it will connect the municipalities of Shanghai and Ningbo, Zhejiang province, and will be the longest trans-oceanic bridge in the world.

Construction started on the bridge on June 8, 2003 and it is scheduled to be completed in 2008. The bridge itself will be 36 km long with six expressway lanes in two directions, making it the second-longest bridge in the world after the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, USA. The designated speed is 100 km per hour, and the designed longevity is more than 100 years. The total investment on the bridge is RMB 11.8 billion (roughly US$ 1.4 billion, as of December 2004). 35% of this amount was raised from private companies in Ningbo. 59% was provided as loans from the China's central and regional banks.

The bridge underwent various feasibility studies for a decade before construction before it was finally approved in 2003. The original plan was for the northern end of the bridge to start at Jinshan, a suburb of Shanghai. After objections were raised by the Shanghai Municipal Government, however, it was shifted south to the territory of Zhejiang province. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, as it is now envisaged, will connect Cixi , west of Ningbo, to Jiaxing. It will cut the distance from Shanghai to Ningbo by more than 320km. Whereas previously the trip from Ningbo to Shanghai and southern Jiangsu involved a detour of around 400 km, the bridge will reduce that distance to 80 km. The result will be that Ningbo, with its port at Beilun, will be able to compete with Shanghai's port Pudong for international sea freight .

Tourism is also expected to expand in Ningbo. Whereas a trip from Shanghai on the high speed superhighway along the coast takes slightly over 4 hours, after the bridge is built a drive to Ningbo will be reduced to around an hour.

The construction of the bridge is a part of China's continuing heavy investment in its transportation infrastructure as well as a step for Ningbo and northern Zhejiang to merge into the Greater Shanghai economic area.

See also

• Transportation in China

External link

• http://www.chinapage.org/bridge/hangzhou/hangzhoubaybridge.html