Bridge to connect island residents directly to Zhijiang, Hubei, in five minutes

The Zhijiang Yangtze River Bridge passed handover acceptance inspection on Saturday, paving the way for the roughly 100,000 residents of Bailizhou Island to finally commute directly to downtown Zhijiang once the bridge opens to traffic in mid-December.

Administered by Zhijiang, Hubei province, Bailizhou is the largest island in the middle reaches of the Yangtze. For thousands of years, ferries were the only way for its residents to travel to and from the mainland. Not only were they tied to the ferries' schedules, but trips were often canceled when the weather created dangerous conditions. Getting downtown on a clear day could take several hours.

"Pears picked at 3 am wait until 6:30 am for the ferry. After a bumpy ride, 20 to 30 percent of them are spoiled," said pear farmer Zhang Xiaolong.

That all comes to an end once the bridge opens. Stretching 1,549 meters with a main span of 890 meters, it will connect Bailizhou directly with downtown Zhijiang. The travel time will plummet to just five minutes.

"I hope the bridge can be opened to traffic as soon as possible," Gao Yaping, the director of a local fruit and vegetable cooperative, said to Hubei Daily. Once operational, agricultural products from the cooperative will be shipped to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Besides shorter transit time, the cooperative will save as much as 500,000 yuan ($74,950) in freight costs each year.

The bridge includes a 4.5-meter-wide slow-travel lane in each direction, becoming Hubei's first expressway bridge equipped with dedicated lanes for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles.

Tao Jiayi contributed to this story.