The world's longest cross-sea bridge has been planned over Hangzhou Bay in east China's Zhejiang Province, the English-language newspaper China Daily reported on Friday.

According to the provincial construction bureau, the bridge, which starts in Cixi in Ningbo and ends at Zhapu port in Jiaxing, will span a total length of 36 kilometers, making it the longest in the world.

With a total investment of 16 billion yuan (about 1.93 billion US dollars), the main construction is expected to begin around the end of this year.

"If everything goes smoothly, the whole project can be completed in five years," Liu Ting, deputy director of the project, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Due to difficulty of the project, the bureau has conducted morethan 70 technical research projects with the help of 600 experts over the past eight years. They have recently tentatively decided on a blueprint for the bridge.

According to the plan, the bridge, which was designed to have six lanes allowing vehicles running at 100 kilometers per hour, will be part of the province's expressway network.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2002)