With Three Record-Breakers, Sutong Is a Sensational Sino Span

Sporting the world's longest cable-stayed span, largest piled foundations, second-tallest towers and longest cable, the Sutong Bridge in China's Jiangsu Province will also serve the more mundane purpose of cutting off almost an hour off the crossing of the Yangtze River between the cities of Nantong and Suzhou–currently done only by ferry.

Costing approximately $1 billion, the Sutong Bridge has a 1,088-meter-long main span supported by 114-m-long, 48-m-wide pilecaps that rest on bored piles up to 2.8 m in diameter and sunk into sandy soils as deep as 120 m. Paving work is complete and the bridge is on target to open to traffic in May 2008. The 1,088-m span will replace the current cable-stayed world record holder for length–the Tatara Bridge in Japan with an 890-m main span.