Hangzhou Bay Bridge - History

History

The bridge across the Hangzhou Bay was the subject of various feasibility studies for over a decade before the final plans were approved in 2003. An earlier plan placed the bridge further east, closer to the mouth of the bay, which provided an even shorter travel distance between Ningbo and Shanghai. Under this plan, the bridge would begin in the north from Jinshan, a suburb of Shanghai. The government of Shanghai rejected the plan and focused on building the 32.5 km (20 mi)-long Donghai Bridge from Shanghai to its off-shore port at Yangshan in the mouth of the bay. The Shanghai government sought to feature Yangshan as the chief port on China's east coast and refused to allow a cross-bay bridge to be built on its territory, which would improve access to the Port of Ningbo at Beilun. The Zhejiang Provincial Government was forced to build the bridge further to the west on entirely Zhejiang territory. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge connects Cixi, a local-level city that is part of Ningbo Municipality, with Haiyan, a county in Jiaxing Municipality. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge has significantly shortened driving distance between Ningbo and the Yangtze River Delta region and improved the competitiveness of the Beilun Port.