China Opens 22-Mile Long Bridge--The World's Longest
by Andrew Posner, Rhode Island, USA on 05. 6.08
China, it seems, can't build fast enough or big enough these days, be it new airport terminals, dams, buildings for the Olympics, coal fired power plants, or bridges. In fact, last week China opened the world's longest sea bridge, spanning 22-miles across Hangzhou Bay, linking Shanghai and Ningbo, an industrial city. The previous record holder was the 20.2-mile long Donghai bridge, which links Shanghai and a port by the name of Yangshan.
So what will the bridge accomplish? The vice-president of an electric company based in Ningbo said it best: "I think it will be easier for our company to recruit high-calibre employees, who always prefer working in small cities like Cixi but living in big cities like Shanghai. They can leave Shanghai for Cixi in the morning and go back in the afternoon. It's only 1.5 hours' drive." Aside from the living in big cities part, that sounds a lot like America. Granted, the bridge will reduce the driving distance between the two cities by 75 miles, but it will clearly enable increased sprawl, congestion and car-ownership. But hey, given development patterns in the U.S. over the last 50 years, who are we to judge?
Amazingly, the gargantuan project was completed in under five years, and is supposedly designed to last 100 years. One wonders whether a different sort of infrastructure project--such as a high-speed rail line--would have been a better long-term investment for the country. Then again, in China, as in most countries around the world, the near-term is nearly all that matters. It's just that in China the scale of everything--the mistakes and the successes--are orders of magnitude greater than they are anywhere else in the world.
Via: ::Guardian
See Also: ::General Electric Opens Wind Turbine Plant in China, ::The World's Largest Subway and other Chinese Adventures, ::Qinghai-Tibet Rail Green Travel Guide, ::Tibet: When "Sustainable" Development Goes Awry, ::When Nature Won't Cooperate in China, Photoshop!, and ::Building a Green China
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge still exceeds it by a small margin (2 miles).
Is it just me, but while 22 miles is a long bridge, I don't believe it is the longest. I don't claim that this is the longest bridge (since I don't know), but if you'd like to cross Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, just take their 24 mile long bridge for a ride.
Gotta admit though, in the middle you can't see land anywhere, and the temptation to speed up until you can is VERY real.
Would be great with a train or light rail system on it.
With all that surface area you could probably power most of it with solar and wind along the way.
I don't suppose they would put a bike lane on it !?!
vsk
I look forward to the huge Chinese population completing the game of catch-up and then beginning to innovate. They represent a huge resource of tech innovation that will help discover ways to preserve our planet.
www.ecounit.com
China is building high speed rail, but apparently in one instance in Shanghai NIMBY rose it's ugly head and prevented a maglev extention in the city. High-speed rail is great--unless it negatively effects YOUR life.
They should let Bush be premier of China after he's done fixing our problems here. A 22 mile-long bridge encouraging people to drive more and live further away from their jobs sounds like Bush/Cheney energy and transportation policy.
Meanwhile, Vinci signs contract for a new world's longest sea bridge. Get prepared for a 40 kms (24.85 miles) "two-lane dual carriageway motorway between Qatar and Bahrain". Well, we'll still have to wait 51 months to be able to cross it...
Source: press release
"encouraging people to drive more and live further away from their jobs sounds like Bush/Cheney energy and transportation policy"
I wonder why Clinton/Gore didn't fix all of that? They had 8 years. Instead, during their administration we had the boom years of SUV sales and suburban development. If anything Bush's policy seems to be moving things in the other direction, if only by unintended consequences.
It's "only 1.5 hour drive"
I'm only a student now, but I am sure I will be annoyed enough if my commute is more than a .5 hours!
nations like China might be the greatest Green Challenge. You can't threaten or insult them to come around to your way of thinking. But if you really care, you have to convince them. Don't you? If they achieve western status country wide with existing technological means, if there was an eco problem before, if there wasn't a scarcity problem before, there will be then.