China’s new 565-metre-high bridge to beat nation’s existing world-record holder – by five metres
Deck of the road bridge, to open later this year over valley in southwestern China, is 24 metres higher than top of New York’s rebuilt One World Trade Centre
China is set to break its own record of the world’s highest bridge with the completion of a structure that stands 565 metres above the valley floor later this year, mainland media reports.
The final section of the main span of the Beipanjiang bridge, connecting Yunnan province and Guizhou province, was put in place on Saturday, the report said.
It will become the highest bridge – when measuring the vertical distance from the deck to the ground or water below – beating the Sidu River bridge, in Hubei province, the current record holder completed in 2009, by just five metres.
China has been investing heavily in its infrastructure projects to support the slowing economy.
Beijing unveiled a 4.7 trillion yuan (HK$5.5 trillion) plan in May to improve the country’s transport infrastructure over the next three years, which covers 303 projects including railways, highways and urban rail.
Construction of the new 1,341-metre-long bridge is costing about 1 billion yuan (HK$1.2 billion).
It was closed 13 days later for maintenance after attracting too many visitors.