Chinese bridge surpasses Causeway as longest bridge over water

[brownpelican]

Move over, Causeway: China opens world's longest sea bridge at 26 miles
The Associated Press

BEIJING -- China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge.

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the island of Huangdao.
State-run CCTV says the 110-foot-wide bridge is the longest of its kind and cost more than 10 billion yuan, or $1.5 billion.
CCTV says the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and the bridge and an undersea tunnel opened to traffic on Thursday.
The bridge supported by more than 5,000 pillars was built in four years.
Guinness World Records says the previous record holder for a bridge over water is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. The Chinese bridge is more than 2.5 miles longer.

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2011/06/china_opens_worlds_longest_sea.html#incart_mce

[Brandon]

Given that it's "Made In China", how long will it last before falling apart?   

[NE2]

At least as long as their high-speed railways, most likely.

[brownpelican]

The dispute has been resolved:

Guinness has split the longest bridge over water category:
* The Causeway is now the world's longest bridge over water (continuous)
* The Chinese bridge is now the world's longest bridge over water (aggregate)

Confusing eh?

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2011/07/guinness_world_records_opens_n.html

[Chris]

The claim is highly dubious indeed. The main bridge is "only" 15 miles long, and I don't think the spur to the north would make it to surpass the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

[english si]

The claim is 26.4 miles. The main bridge is 15 miles, the spur adds about a mile and a half. 16 miles in km is 25.6 (16*1.6), add 800m for half a mile and that's 26.4km.

But that doesn't seem to be the case as this is prevalent with the figure of ~42km.

Shame they didn't build it in time to screw up the Olympic sailing in 2008.

[Brandon]

Sounds like the typical boasting from that part of the world.

[english si]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8629905/Chinese-motorway-collapses-after-just-two-days.html

Not the bridge, but linked in with the 'made in China' stuff above.