The
Shanghai government will not build any more bridges across the Huangpu River in the city downtown to connect Pudong and Puxi, a senior transport planner announced yesterday.
Instead, the city plans to build at least six more tunnels under the river within the Outer Ring Road by the end of 2020, bringing the total number of connections to 16, about two kilometers apart.
"Tunnels have many advantages over bridges for the city's long-term development," Qian Shaohua, director of the road and transport planning department of
Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute, said yesterday.
The city downtown has four bridges over the Huangpu - most of which are the city's signature constructions such as the new Lupu Bridge, hailed as the world's No. 1 arch bridge.
But as the city develops rapidly, problems have emerged as a result of building grand-looking bridges in the central district, Qian said.
"Too many bridges may block some big ships entering downtown waters as
Shanghai aims to become an international shipping hub," he said.
"The cost of a bridge is normally much higher than that of a tunnel because bridges involve compensation for the relocated residents," he added.
Chen Youhua, a senior engineer of
Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, said tunnels are more convenient than bridges because bridges require long approaches.
"The elevated bridge approach, either straight or curved, will occupy a considerable area of downtown land that is very expensive and could be used for other purposes," he said.
He acknowledged that bridges - such as those in Sydney and Los Angles - may look far more spectacular than tunnels.
But they were not very suitable for big cities with mature urban engineering, he said.
"Too many skylines above the land and water will make people feel depressed and uncomfortable," Chen said.
Shanghai now has four bridges and four tunnels, excluding the Bund Sight-seeing Tunnel.
Two tunnels are under construction. They are the Xiangyin Road Tunnel between Xiangyin Road in Puxi and the planned
Wuzhou Avenue in Pudong; and the Fuxing Road East Tunnel between Fuxing Road East in Puxi and Zhangyang Road in Pudong.
