Tunnelling To Dongtan: Engineering Ahead of Schedule

The new eco-city of Dongtan is being made more readily accessible, in preparation for future commuting once Dongtan has been established. Currently, it takes travellers an hour to drive and then be ferried over to Chongming Island. The Island and mainland will now be connected by a bridge and tunnel, to reduce journey time to 20minutes. The current ferry service is used by 30,000 passengers everyday, highlighting the route’s popularity. Nonetheless, authorities blame the lower economic development of the three islands surrounding Shanghai - Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha – on the poor transportation options. The municipal Government hopes that the bridge and tunnel crossing the Yangtze River will boost economic growth of outlying regions.

Dongtan, ultimately will be more accessible, but it could be argued that is this a benefit to a region that is supposed to be based on low emissions and environmentally friendly development? The projects have however, been given approval and today a Chinese engineers, Huixia, has announced that the two projects are well ahead of schedule and will be completed by the end of this year, not by 2010 as planned. On completion, the bridge will be 10km long and the fifth widest suspension bridge in the world, achieved at an estimated cost of US$1.5bn.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/6388860.html