First Phase of Macao-funded Bridge Opens to Traffic

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 12, 2002

First Phase of Macao-funded Bridge Opens to Traffic

The first phase of the Yu'ao Bridge over the Jialing River here was put into use Friday.

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The first phase of the Yu'ao Bridge over the Jialing River here was put into use Friday.

The bridge was built with funds from Macao and local private investors.

Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Macao Special AdministrativeRegion (SAR), was present at the opening ceremony.

Ho decided to build the bridge, when he visited the city in 1997 as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People'sPolitical Consultative Conference and a Macao business leader. At that time Macao was still under Portugal's rule.

In 1999, investors in Chongqing and Macao reached an agreement to launch the bridge project. The bridge, over the Jialing River, a distributary of the Yangtze, is 4,400 m long and will cost about800 million yuan.

It is expected to ease traffic jams in the southwest China city, which was made a municipality under the direct leadership ofthe central government in March 1997, following Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin municipalities.

The second phase of the bridge project, including a tunnel and two flyovers, is scheduled to be launched next March and completedby the end of 2003.