"Now we can say almost for sure that the Lupu Bridge will be open to traffic on June 30 as promised," said Ding Hao, vice president of Shanghai Construction Group, which is in charge of constructing the bridge.

With all of the structural pieces in place, builders only have to fasten everything in place, finish some welding and paint the bridge before it is ready to open to traffic in four months.

The all-steel, 8.7-kilometer-long bridge will be the fourth span over the Huangpu River in downtown Shanghai following the Nanpu, Yangpu and Xupu bridges that were built during the 1990s and are all cable-stayed.

With a 550-meter arch, it will become the longest arch bridge in the world, beating the current 518-meter arch bridge in West Virginia of the United States.

The bridge was originally budgeted to cost 2.2 billion yuan (US$265 million) but is now expected to cost 2.5 billion yuan, according to the construction group.

Shanghai lupu Bridge Investment Development Co. will own and manage the bridge for 25 years.

"Though the bridge will be free of charge for traffic, we will charge sightseeing visitors and rent vacancies for advertisements to cover building costs," said Bai Xiaojiang, the development company's vice chairman.

The local government will also pay the company 9.7 percent of the construction cost annually for the next 25 years.

The bridge will be equipped with four elevators - two in Puxi and two in Pudong - to carry visitors to the top of its 750-meter-plus-arch for sightseeing.

"When the bridge is complete, it will take only about half an hour for people to arrive at the city center from Pudong International Airport," said Yue Guiping, senior engineer with the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute.

(eastday.com February 8, 2003)