First girder for deepwater port

　　Construction workers molded the first concrete-and-steel girder for the Donghai Bridge - which is set to be the country's longest bridge - on a small island in Zhejiang Province yesterday.

　　The bridge is a key part of the first phase of the Yangshan Deepwater Port project that began in June 2002. The 31-kilometer-long bridge will link Shanghai to the port located on an island at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, about 27 kilometers from the city's eastern Nanhui District.

　　With a life expectancy of 100 years, the bridge is expected to be completed by 2005. It's eight traffic lanes will be supported by some 700 steel and concrete girders, each of which is 59 meters long and weights 1,600 tons on average.

　　"This is an encouraging achievement for the project," Cui Gejun, a senior engineer on the project, said of yesterday's work. Molding each girder takes about 12 hours, and the work has become increasingly difficult recently due to hot weather in Shanghai, said Cui.

　　"Hopefully, we will be able to start putting the girders onto the already-built piers early next month," Cui said.

　　Located 14 kilometers southeast of Xiaoyangshan, Shenjiawan Island was trans-ferredsintosa major construction base for the bridge's girders and piers last October.

　　To date, the bridge has already cost 3.5 billion yuan (US million) and is expected to cost 14.31 billion yuan by the time it is completed in 2005.

　　The deepwater port project is part of a central government plan to turn Shanghaisintosan international shipping hub and also meets the aims of the city it-self to become a leading ship-ping center in Southeast Asia.

　　The new port will be able to handle larger ships than current ports in the city, which are limited by the relatively shallow depths of the Huangpu River.