The Runyang Yangtze River Bridge () is a large
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
complex that crosses the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
in
Jiangsu
Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...
Province,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, downstream of
Nanjing
Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400.
Situated in the Yang ...
. The complex consists of two major bridges that link
Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and ...
on the south bank of the river and
Yangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...
on the north. The bridge is part of the
Yangzhou–Liyang Expressway. Construction of the bridge complex began in October 2000 and was completed ahead of schedule. The bridge cost 5.8 billion Yuan (about US$700 million). The complex opened to traffic on April 30, 2005. The total length of the bridge complex is about .
In between the two bridges is the island of
Shiyezhou.
Prior to the bridge's completion, round-the-clock ferry services operated across the river. It took about 40 minutes to reach the Zhenjiang Railway Station from Yangzhou.
To this day, this nearby, round-the-clock ferry service operates across the river. The fee is approximately 15 yuan per small car, with a wait time of about 5 minutes. Cars and trucks drive directly onto the ferry boats before departure. Some locals estimate the ferries more quickly connect the city centers of Zhenjiang and Yangzhou.
South bridge
The south bridge is a
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
with a main span of . Upon its completion in 2005 it became the third
longest suspension bridge span in the world and the largest in China. With the opening of the
Xihoumen Bridge in 2007, it became the second longest span in China. It is now the ninth longest in the world. The towers are above water level. The two approach spans are not suspended. The main span of the bridge consists of a streamlined
orthotropic steel
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
box girder that is in depth. The width of the deck is , accommodating 6
traffic
Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes.
Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...
lanes and a narrow walkway at each outside edge for maintenance. The height clearance for river navigation is about .
Another planned suspension bridge across the
Qiongzhou Strait in China, will be larger than the south bridge, spanning between 2,000 and 2,500 metres.
North bridge
The north bridge is a
cable-stayed bridge
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...
with a main span of with towers above water level.
See also
*
List of bridges in China
*
List of longest suspension bridge spans
*
List of largest cable-stayed bridges
This list ranks the world's cable-stayed bridges by the length of main span, i.e. the distance between the suspension towers. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank cable-stayed bridges. If one bridge has a longer span than a ...
*
List of tallest bridges in the world
*
Yangtze River bridges and tunnels
References
News article from ''Peoples Daily Online''Article from construction.com
* — south bridge
* — north bridge
External links
*
Runyang Yangtze River Highway Bridge
{{Authority control
Bridges in Jiangsu
Suspension bridges in China
Bridges over the Yangtze River
Bridges completed in 2005
Cable-stayed bridges in China