© Jim ZhaoSutong Bridge 2008
Sutong Bridge 2008
The Bridge
The Sutong Bridge fulfils a 1,000-year old dream for the people of Suzhou and Nantong on the two banks of the Yangtze River. The only way to travel between the two cities was by ferry, on one of the busiest inland waterways in the world, a journey that is time-consuming and treacherous.
A collision between a cargo ship and a passenger ferry in May 1987 that killed 105 people convinced the authorities that the time had finally arrived to build a state-of-the-art bridge.
Spanning 8,206m (five miles) across the Yangtze River, this bridge has reduced the commute from Nantong to Shanghai by three hours and the long journey by ferry across the river is now a five minute drive over the bridge. The inverted ‘Y’ pylons of the cable-stayed bridge are 306m high; suspending a central span of 1,088m to allow the passage of large container ships.
Sutong Bridge
One of the world's longest-span cable-stayed bridges
Key Facts
Six-lane highway
Project consists of three parts: cable-stayed bridge, North Bank link and South Bank link
Location
Nantong and Changshu, China
Across the Yangtze River
Designers
Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University
China Highway Planning and Design Institute Consultants
Jiangsu Province Communications Planning and Design Institute
Description
Cable-stayed suspension bridge
1,088m main span
8,206m total length
Consulting Engineers
Civil Engineering Institute of Southwest Jiaotong University
COWI AS
Maunsell AECOM
Construction
Began on 27 June 2003
Opened 30 June 2008
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