Bridge over Yangtze to relieve traffic pressure in Nanjing

NANJING—Authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing have unveiled plans to build a new bridge across the Yangtze river, joining five others crossing the river in this economically developed area and aiming to relieve pressure on an overloaded road network.
The new bridge is planned about two km upstream of the existing Nanjing Yangtze Highway-Railway Bridge, and will help alleviate the growing transport pressure on that bridge, according to Lu Yulong, senior economist with the Urban Construction and Development Research Office of Nanjing City Construction Committee.
The lower reaches of the Yangtze flow through Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, separating the city’s downtown areas on the southern side of the river from Pukou, a comparatively underdeveloped urban district of Nanjing on the northern side of the river. The Nanjing highway-railway bridge was the first bridge built by the Chinese themselves on the Yangtze River. The construction of the 5,773-meter-long bridge began in 1960 and finished in 1968.The bridge was hailed as a major engineering feat of the People’s Republic of China for many years, and has always been a major tourist attraction in the ancient city.
The bridge, however, has been overburdened by growing traffic since the 1990s. The road surface has suffered severe damage, and the bridge now handles 63,00 motor vehicles daily, far exceeding its designed daily limit of 15,000. In addition, each year 200 million tons of freight passes over it. Cui Peide, chief of the Office of Nanjing Yangtze Bridge Administration, said 90 percent of the traffic on the bridge was between downtown Nanjing and Pukou District. Lu complained that the No. 2 bridge, 11 km downstream of the Nanjing highway-railway bridge, and No. 3 bridge, 19 km upstream, as well as a tunnel that is 10 km upstream and being constructed to traverse the Yangtze, were all poorly positioned. “The above mentioned three thoroughfares are far away from downtown areas of the city and most drivers will shun them, so they won’t help much in relieving the highway-railway bridge of any transport pressure,” said Lu, who strongly supported construction of the 5th bridge.
According to Lu, the city government has set up a special office to be responsible for preparing for construction of the newbridge. The new bridge, which will be connected to the No. 4 subway system of Nanjing and its fast inner ring road network, will be 9.5 km long and construction will start in late 2008, and the planned opening is in 2011.
The Yangtze, China’s longest river which stretches 6,300 km, originates in northwest China’s Qinghai Province and flows through10 provinces and municipalities before emptying into the East China Sea.
Sixty-one bridges have been built or are being constructed on the main stream of the Yangtze since Oct. 15, 1957, when Wuhan highway-railway bridge was finished with the assistance of experts sent from the Soviet Union and put into service.—Xinhua