Shanghai Daily news

The 550th roadway plank was put into place yesterday on the Donghai Bridge, meaning more than 80 percent of the country's longest span across the East China Sea has been completed.
Project managers said yesterday the 25-kilometer-long above-water portion of the bridge will be completed by June, ensuring the entire bridge will be open to traffic by the end of this year.
"If the weather cooperates, our entire project of placing roadway planks shall be completed before May," said Qu Ziqiang, a project manager with Shanghai No. 2 Engineering Company.
Each bridge plank is the size of four volleyball courts and weighs about 1,600 tons.
As a key part of the first phase of the Yangshan Deep Water Port that began in June 2002, the 31-kilometer-bridge will link Shanghai to the port, which is located at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, about 27 kilometers from the city's Luchaogang in Nanhui District.
Qu explained that because of typhoons and big tidal waves, the project advanced very slowly during the first year of construction in 2003.
"Currently, we can place four planks every day," said Qu.
Engineers said once the bridge is put into use, it will be able to strongly resist typhoons and tidal waves.
Shanghai expects to become a leading shipping center in Northeast Asia over the next few years.
To compete with South Korea and China's Taiwan, which handle large volumes of shipping containers from northern and northeastern China, Shanghai is constructing the port to improve its edge.
Both the port and the bridge should be in operation before 2006, according to the city's plan.