According to the site, construction of the 69-kilometer-long automobile bridge began on Sunday in the coastal Chinese province of Zhejiang and will continue until 2012. The eight-lane Jia-Shao Bridge will connect the cities of Jiaxing and Shaoxing on either side of Hangzhou Bay at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion.
Like other bridges of this size, most of its length will be low-level viaduct, with longer cable-stayed spans to allow large ships to pass underneath.
In May, China opened for public use the Hanzhou Bay Bridge, which connects the cities of Jiaxing and Cixi, in the south of the country. At 36 km, it is the longest sea-crossing in the world, although the two main cable-stayed spans are less than 450 m.
The construction of that bridge was begun in 2003, and cost around $1.8 billion to complete.
