JIAXING.- The world’s longest sea bridge opened Thursday, spanning the Hangzhau Bay in the East China Sea to boost economic integration and development in the Yangtze River delta. The $1.69 billion, 36-km bridge, China’s first public infrastructure with part private funding, connects Shanghai with Ningbo, cutting the distance between the two delta cities by 120 km.

The bridge opened to traffic on a trial basis at 11:58 p.m. on Thursday, with at least 2,000 vehicles queuing for the passage at midnight.

“The bridge has become well-known and is expected to attract visitors,” said an official. “We haven’t decided how long the trial operation period will last. That depends ... on the bridge condition and we need time to improve management about its operation.” It will cut the length of the road trip from Shanghai to Ningbo, a busy port, by 120 km and is designed to last 100 years. The bridge, with a 32-km section spanning the sea, is a cable-stayed structure built at a cost of 11.8 billion Yuan ($1.69 billion). Private investors funded almost 30 per cent of the project, the first time China’s private sector had invested in a major public infrastructure project. Construction began in 2003 and was completed in 2007.

It is about 2km short of the bridge across Lake Pontchartrain in the US state of Louisiana. Private investors funded almost 30 percent of the project, the first time China's private sector had invested in a major public infrastructure project in the country.

Trucks, overloaded vehicles and vehicles carrying dangerous chemicals will be barred from the bridge during the trial period, Xinhua said.

"We haven't decided how long the trial operation period will last. That depends...on the bridge condition, and we need time to improve management about its operation," it quoted Jin Jianming, deputy chief commander of the bridge construction project, as saying.