China Opens World’s Longest Cross-Sea Bridge

When the new Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge opened to traffic this week in China, it made the Guinness World Records for the longest cross-sea bridge in the world. The 26.4-mile long and 110-foot wide bridge stretches across the bay, linking the Huangdao district to the city of Qingdao and Hongdao Island.

China spent 17 years planning and designing the engineering marvel to be able to withstand the bay’s high salt content and icy winters. Yet, it only took four years to build, with at least 10,000 workers on the construction team. The Xinhua news agency says about $2.3 billion was spent, and 450,000 tons of steel and 81 million cubic feet of concrete were consumed in its construction.

An estimated 30,000 cars are expected to make the trek across the bay each day. Residents already traveling between Huangdao and Qingdao will have their trip cut in half, from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

The first motorists to drive onto the six-lane bridge will have a free journey.  For the first month, cars can plow the 110ft-wide highway across the bay free of charge, but after that, a trip on the bridge will cost 50 yuan ($7.75 USD).

The bridge beat out the current Guinness World Record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, by at least 2 ½ miles.

However, it will be eclipsed in 2016 by another Chinese bridge, a 30-mile long connection being built to link Hong Kong with Macau and Guangdong province.