China will open the world’s tallest bridge this June. It will rise 2,051 feet above river level, a whopping 947 feet above the current title holder Millau Viaduct in France.
China’s latest engineering feat, the Huajiang Canyon Bridge, is part of a nationwide effort to improve infrastructure.
Across the country, moves are underway to improve infrastructure, particularly in underdeveloped mountain regions like Guizhou in southern China. The new bridge improves travel for residents in the region, reducing the travel time over the Huajiang Grand Canyon from two hours to just two minutes, according to reports from CNN.
Construction for the bridge began in January of 2022, and is slated to be complete on June 30. It’s a steel truss suspension bridge, spanning 9,482 feet across. The trusses that make up the bridge weigh around 22,000 tons, or the weight of three Eiffel Towers. Nearly 49,000 tons of steel were used in the making of the bridge overall.
Zhang Shenglin, chief engineer of the Guizhou Highway Group, told a state-run newspaper China Daily: “At present, the overall progress of the bridge has reached 95%, and it is planned to be open to traffic in the second half of 2025.” Guizhou is home to nearly half of the world’s 100 tallest bridges
Though China is known for its innovative architectural solutions, the building of the bridge faced many complications. The bridge is suspended over the gaping canyon by two gargantuan towers, and was made using the world’s largest cable crane system guided by satellite and sensor technology to ensure careful precision.
Guizhou is a highly mountainous region in southwestern China, home to many rural villages. The addition of the bridge is predicted to increase tourism to the region which already sees hundreds of millions of visitors each year.
