Construction of the Xianghai Bridge resumed on Feb 20 and the 3.7-km (2.3-mile) section between the Meihua and Zaobei interchanges is expected to open by the end of this year.

Rebars are currently being tied to the bridge pier at the Jietan Interchange in Qianshan on the Zhongshan boundary, while more are being installed for the upper collar beam at Ramp F of the Tanzhou Interchange. Two excavators are busy at the Meihua Interchange in Shangchong, New Xiangzhou, while dozens of workers are erecting sandbag dams at the Cuiping Flood Discharge Channel prior to flood season.

Each construction site has anti-epidemic coordinators and supervisors to ensure prevention and control measures are taken and that management of staff, dormitory, canteen, air-conditioners, vehicles, venues, training, equipment, and supplies is in place.

Workers install rebars for upper collar beam at Tanzhou Interchange of Xianghai Bridge [Photo by Zhong Fan / Zhuhai Daily] 

For the moment, the primary difficulties concerning work resumption are shortages of labor and raw material, according to Yu Dengrong, general manager of Xianghai Bridge Co.

To address them, the project team has arranged chartered buses to pick up migrant workers and increased input to attract qualified suppliers.

Spanning 29.98 km (19 miles), the dual six-lane Xianghai Bridge starts from the Guangdong Western Coastal Expressway's Tanzhou Interchange. It will run southward on an overpass of National Expressway G105 (Gudu Avenue) to Meihua Road in Shangchong, then westward along the Zhuhai-Zhongshan border to Zhongshan's Tanzhou Town and Zhuhai's Jinwan and Doumen districts.

The bridge will cross the Guangzhou-Zhuhai West Line, Zhongshan West Outer Ring, and Jiangmen-Zhuhai expressways before ending at Huxin Road in Doumen. 

To be built are 10 interchanges, 20 km (12 miles) of main line with a designed speed of 100 kmph (62 mph) and 9.8 km (6 miles) of feeder with a speed limit of 80 kmph (50 mph). As of late January, about half of the projected 7.67 billion yuan ($1 billion) investment had been spent.

Being a key east-west passage parallel to and north of Zhuhai Avenue, the entire project is expected to be operational by 2021. Motorists will reach downtown areas from Doumen District in fewer than 30 minutes.