The Beipanjiang Bridge on the Guanxing Highway near Xingbei Town (Xinbeizhen), Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province, Southwest China is now the world’s highest bridge.
The bridge opened to traffic on the 29th December 2016 after 3 years in construction, at a cost of approximately US$143 million.
The 1,341 metre long structure is equivalent to a 200-story building in height. Some 566 metres above the Beipanjiang Valley, the bridge connects the mountainous provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan and shortens the travel time between the two provinces from 5 hours to 1½ hours.
The four lane Beipanjiang Bridge is part of an extensive highway system linking Hangzhou City in eastern China’s Zhejiang province to Ruili City in southwestern Yunnan province.
Previously the Sidu River Bridge in China held the record for highest at 500 metres above a river, but the tallest bridge in the world is still the Millau Viaduct over the River Tarn near Millau in southern France at 245 metres and a raised deck at 270 metres.
The bridge is also the second of 3 Beipan River crossings to have been among the world’s 10 highest. The first was the 275 metre high Beipanjiang River Railway Bridge that opened in 2001 and was the highest railway bridge in the world until China’s Najiehe Railway Bridge and Qinglong Railway Bridges opened in 2016. The Hukun Expressway Bridge over the Beipan River which opened in 2009 is the third bridge to cross the Beipanjiang along the Guiyang to Kunming Highway with a suspension span 330 metres.
Video by CCTV News
