Gucci Go / Shanghai Daily News

The world's first double-decker tunnel, the West Fuxing Rd Tunnel, will open to traffic at 7:00 am, September 29, Wen Hui Bao reported.

The West Fuxing Rd Tunnel starts from East Fuxing Rd and Guangqi Rd, ending at Zhangyang Rd and East Laoshan Rd in Pudong, with a total length of 2785 meters and a total investment of 1590 million yuan (US$ 200 million).

The design principle of the tunnel is to make full use of the space.  This six-lane tunnel is divided into two parts: four lanes in the upper deck, and the two lanes in the lower deck. As well, there is one parking lane in the lower deck for emergency use. The upper deck has a limited height of 2.4 meters, and is open only to smaller cars travelling at speeds up to 40 km per hour. The lower deck, with a height of 3.8 meters, will be open only to larger vehicles with yellow license plates. these vehicles will be restricted to speeds of  60 km per hour and 40 km at the curves.

Several public buses, including Tunnel No.5, Rd.775, Rd.789, Rd.980, Airport No.6 and the Shen-Zhou night line, will include this tunnel in their new routes  across the Huangpu River, which may reduce the heavy traffic in the East Yanan Rd Tunnel and on the Nanpu Bridge.