China opens world's longest cable-stayed bridge

The world's biggest multi-pylon cable-stayed bridge opened to traffic in eastern China on Friday (July 19).

The Jiaxing-Shaoxing Sea-Crossing Bridge, which stretches 10 kilometres across the Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province, took over four years to complete, designers said.

The main 10-kilometre stretch across the Qiantang river estuary has six masts and cost over 6.4 billion yuan (1 billion U.S. dollars), designers said.

The bridge, which is the second to be built over the Hangzhou Bay, will halve the driving time from the city of Shaoxing to the eastern financial hub of Shanghai, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The head of construction for the main body of the bridge, Lin Daojin, could himself enjoy the drive across after his team successfully overcame significant challenges.

"The Jiaxing-Shaoxing Bridge is located in an area where the tide of the Qiantang River is stronger. The bridge is long and the tide is turbulent, so it presented a huge cha