The $2.1bn Shanghai-Changjiang River Bridge has a double-deck structure, with six-lanes of road traffic on top and four railway lines underneath, making it the longest road–rail cable-stayed bridge in the world. The 1km suspended span allows ship traffic on the river; the remainder takes the form of a causeway.To get more shanghai breaking news, you can visit shine news official website.

The rail element also completed the Shanghai-to-Nantong railway, which will reduce the drive time between China’s most populous city and the north of Jiangsu Province from 3.5 hours to one, and replaces a four-hour ferry trip with a 30-minute railway journey. The 143km link will initially operate a maximum of 45 pairs of passenger trains a day, along with six pairs of freight trains travelling at speeds of up to 200km/h.

Wang Feng, the deputy general of China State Railway Group, commented: “The opening of the bridge and the railway will advance the integration of the Yangtze River Delta area, as well as the construction of the coastal and Beijing–Shanghai railway channels.”

He added that many new technologies were used in the cable-stayed bridge, including an advanced anti-collision system and cables with the highest tensile strength in the world. “The anti-collision system can warn the river traffic authority within 3km if a ship appears likely to strike a bridge pier,” he said.

The bridge took 480,000 tonnes of steel to make, and its 330m main pylon is the world’s tallest for a combined cable-stayed bridge. The pylon will also have the world’s largest deep-water sink foundation, covering an area the size of 12 basketball courts and 115m in depth.