We love megaconstructions. Over the years, humans have shown that they have more than enough capacity to create pharaonic constructions such as the HZMB Bridge, a horizontal skyscraper worth 4.8 billion dollars, or the Hong Kong-Zhuhai Macao Bridge. We are going to talk about bridges today, and about China, because if the construction of the bridge between Russia and the eastern country was finished a few weeks ago, today we want to focus on its jewel in the crown: the Great Danyang-Kunshan Bridge.
It is the longest bridge in the world and this is recognized by the Guinness Award it received in June 2011. The construction is located in Jiangsu and the Jinghu high-speed line runs through it, linking Beijing and Shanghai. More interesting is the fact that the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge crosses the Changhua-Kaohsiung Viaduct, which curiously is the second-longest bridge in the world. And it is not a surprise, because seven of the ten longest bridges on our globe are in China.
Tons of steel, many people, and many years
The construction of the bridge began in 2006 and took four years to complete, which is not bad considering that it is 164.8 kilometers long. To put it in context, it is something more than the distance between Córdoba and Málaga using the A-45. It is also not bad if we compare it with the Constitution Bridge of 1812, in Cádiz, which is three kilometers long and took seven years to build.
To carry out such pharaonic work, 10,000 workers and a total investment of 8,500 million dollars were necessary. In its construction, 450,000 tons of steel were needed, which, as they point out in Diario del Viajero, is enough to make 65 Eiffel towers, as well as 2.3 million cubic meters, which are the equivalent of 3,800 Olympic swimming pools. This bridge has an average altitude of 30.48 meters and in one of its sections, it crosses the Yancheeng Lake, which has a length of 9.6 kilometers.
This area is precisely important since it was reinforced to resist natural catastrophes and the impact of warships. China is a country with high seismic activity, so much so that in 2019 alone it suffered 126 earthquakes, the most important being the 6.1 on the Richter scale that occurred in Hualien, Taiwan. The bridge rests on 2,000 pillars and has 22 tunnels that, added together, represent about 16 kilometers of track.
As we said, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line runs over this bridge, which is 1,318 kilometers long. This opened on June 30, 2011, almost at the same time as the bridge, which was completed in 2010 but not opened until 2011. The train has a maximum speed of 326 kilometers per hour, which is enough to cover the entire section in just under five hours. There are 24 stops and two tracks.
China and long bridges
And it is that China has a kind of fixation with long bridges. As we said at the beginning, of the ten longest bridges in the world, seven are in Chinese territory. Danyang-Kunshan is the longest, followed by the Changua-Kaohsiung Viaduct, which measures 157 kilometers. The third, fourth, and fifth are also Chinese: Cangde (115), Tianing (113 kilometers), and Weinan Weihe (79 kilometers). It is not until the sixth position that we find a Thai bridge, the Bang Na, which measures 54 kilometers.
The lower part of the table is made up of the Great Beijing Bridge, 48 kilometers, the causeway of Lake Pontchartrain, located in the south of the State of Louisiana (United States), with 38 kilometers in length. The ninth position is for the Wuhan Metro Line 1 bridge, with 37 kilometers, and the tenth for the Manchac swamp bridge, a double viaduct, also in Louisiana, with 36 kilometers in length.
Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.
