Span to promote tourism, green energy
28/11/2005 8:14
James Chang/Shanghai Daily news
Once it opens, the
Donghai Bridge will be more than just a connection between the city and the
Yangshan Deep-water Port. It is expected to boost tourism on several islands and
will play a large role in the city's development of environmentally friendly
power. Huang Rong, who is in charge of the project, said the central
government plans to develop islands in the East China Sea into tourist
attractions. "There are many geological tourist attractions on Yangshan
Island, and hopefully the city's tourism authority will open special travel
routes to it," Huang said. Speed boats will also travel between Yangshan and
the Zhoushan Islands, which are home to many temples and other Buddhist
attractions. The bridge, which is expected to open early next month, is a key
part of the first phase of the deep water port, which also includes five
container-ship berths along the coast of Yangshan Island - sitting on the
boundary between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province. In addition to tourism, the
city government is planning to build a number of wind-driven generators along
the bridge from 2006 to 2010. City officials say the project is expected to cost
around 2 billion yuan (US$247 million). The project aims to push ahead the
city's development of "green power," mostly wind-driven. A preliminary plan
calls for the project to be open to both domestic and foreign companies, and
says all contracts will be granted through opening bidding. "This is part of
the city's ambition to develop green power during the 11th Five-Year-Plan
(2006-2010)," Chen Zhenqian, deputy director of the energy conservation and
environmental protection division of the Shanghai Economic Commission, said in a
recent interview. The city wants green power to make up 1 percent of all
energy used in Shanghai by 2012, Chen said. Currently, environmentally friendly
power only accounts for 0.07 percent of energy used in the city. Building
generators at sea is difficult work, however, meaning it will also be expensive.
Chen said the cost of building the windmills will be about 20,000 yuan per
kilowatt of generating capacity - twice the cost of building generators on
land. Each windmill will be capable of generating 3,000 kilowatts, and the
city wants to build enough generators to produce 100,000 kilowatts, according to
Chen. He said the city's current wind-driven power generators, which are
located in rural Nanhui District, Fengxian District and Chongming County, are
imported from foreign countries. The bridge itself will have six traffic
lanes, which can run in either direction based on traffic flow. The maximum
speed on the bridge will be 80 kilometers per hour. The bridge was designed
in the shape of an "S" because driving along a straight bridge for a long time
can be dangerous, engineers said. It should take about 30 minutes to drive from
Nanhui District to the future Yangshan Deep-water Port via the
32.5-kilometer-long bridge.
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