First Yangtze railway bridge in dam area breaks earth

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 ◆ First Yangtze railway bridge in dam area breaks earth

Construction began recently on the first railway bridge across the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges Dam area.

The earth was broken on the 1,106-meter-long Wanzhou Yangtze Bridge on the Wanzhou-Yichang Railway between Wanzhou, a district of southwest China's Chongqing municipality, and Yichang, a city in the central Hubei province.

The bridge will connect the Wanzhou-Yichang Railway, regarded as one of the most important sections of the railway network along the Yangtze.

Officials in charge of the construction said the bridge and the Wanzhou-Yichang railway will help improve the traffic conditions in the Three Gorges Dam area and boost the development of the local economy.

The bridge, estimated to cost 200 million yuan (over 24 millionUS dollars), is expected to be completed in May, 2005.