Over the Pearl River Delta, a new giant rises. It is the Shenzhong Bridge. Now known as Shitouling Bridge. This ambitious project is turning heads.
Shitouling Bridge is part of the giant Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge. It is a tunnel project that crosses the Pearl River Delta. This crossing lies 33 kilometers north of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. The bridge is more than just a means of transportation. It shows China’s growing ambitions.
Originally, it was called the Lingdingyang Bridge. The Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link is one of the highest ocean-level port crossings. The suspended steel box deck rises 90 meters above the water. That’s 295 feet. The 8-lane roadway is wide. It measures 41.2 meters. That makes it one of the widest long-span suspension bridges. Towers support it. They are 270 meters tall.
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge is 15 miles long. That is 24 kilometers. It is eight lanes wide. It features artificial islands and an undersea tunnel. The project cost 6.7 billion. China’s builders recently set a world record. They paved more than 243200 square feet of asphalt in a single day. That equals more than 50 basketball courts.
The bridge forms a central part of China’s plan. The plan is to develop its Greater Bay Area. This area is one of the world’s largest urban areas. It will become an economic and technological hub. It can rival San Francisco, New York, or Tokyo. The Greater Bay Area has 68 million people. It covers 21800 square miles. It includes 11 cities. They are Hong Kong, Macao, and nine others, including Zhongshan and Shenzhen. Shenzhen alone has more than 12 million people.
Beijing hopes the bridges will connect cities. This connection is both physical and conceptual. Travel times will be cut. Journeys between Zhongshan and the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport will be shorter. The airport is mainland China’s third busiest. It hosted over 37 million passengers in 2019. Travel time will reduce from two hours to 20 minutes.
The government is advertising the bridge as a world-class accomplishment. Infrastructure is important to China’s reputation. It links domestic and international development.
The idea for the Greater Bay Area came up in 2009. Development has faced barriers. The cities involved are disparate. The region has three borders. They include the Chinese mainland and the former colonies of Hong Kong and Macao. These regions have separate systems. They have separate immigration and legal systems. They even have separate currencies.
Residents carry different passports and identity cards. They speak two forms of Chinese. These are Cantonese and Mandarin. They even drive on different sides of the road.
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge connects two mainland Chinese cities. These cities follow the same regulations. This eliminates the issues of different systems. The Shitouling Bridge exemplifies China’s ambition. It symbolizes economic growth. It also highlights the complexities of integrating diverse regions.