China has built more than 800,000 highway bridges

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China has built more than 800,000 highway bridges and the total length of China’s high-speed railway bridges has already been over 10,000 km, state transport authorities said Sunday. Bridges have been another new sign for the rapid development of Chinese construction.

By the end of 2016, there were 805,300 highway bridges across China, according to Zhou Wei, chief engineer from the Ministry of Transport, at the China (Wuhan) International Bridge Industry Expo in central China's Hubei Province.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge/Xinhua Photo

At present, more than half of the global top 10 large cable-stayed bridges are in China, as are six suspension bridges, whose main spans rank top 10 in the world. Besides, China also completed several arch bridges and girder bridges, which are famous across the world.

China has completed 22,000 km of high-speed railway lines, and over 50 percent of these using bridges, said Yan Hexiang, director of the Science Technology and Regulations Department of National Railway Administration (NRA).

Bridge in China/Xinhua Photo

In the future, China aims to continue constructing high-speed railways, making the total length reach 38,000 km by 2025, 45,000 km by 2030 if possible, said Yan.

As a vital part of China’s eight vertical and eight horizontal high-speed railway network project, it is expected to improve China’s transport situation in the future.

Bridge in Nanjing/Xinhua Photo

"NRA will come up with the research and put new technology, devices, and materials into bridge building," he added.

In fact, China’s bridge construction has entered a super era. China not only builds bridges in China but also started to participate in bridge construction overseas.

Bridge in China/Xinhua Photo

For instance, the Halogaland Bridge in northern Norway, with a free span of 1,145 meters, is being built by a Chinese company, the Sichuan Road and Bridge Group. It is expected to be one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe when it opens for traffic in 2018.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency ,Global Times