The World's longest sea bridge

China has opened today the world's longest sea bridge, connecting the port cities of Shanghai and Ningbo over the Hangzhou Bay, report different media. Building of the bridge started in 2003 and shortens the distance between the two important port cities.
The 36-kilometer bridge will change logistics in this part of eastern China dramatically as the Ningbo port might develop into a direct competitor of the already huge port of Shanghai. When Shanghai planned the expansion of its port, sharing its business with Ningbo seemed a logical idea since port city in Zhejiang province has a natural deepsea port. But Shanghai's leaders were so eager to keep the port within its own borders and ecoomic realm, although the building costs for a new deepsea port on the sea were considerably higher.
That was a major disappointment for Zhejiang province, who also had to give a few islands to Shanghai to allow them to build their own port. As compensation Zhejiang goed permission to build the bridge over de Hangzhou Bay. That does create an interesting competitive situation between the two port cities.
The bridge might be availeble all the time. Apart from an occassional typhone, coastal weather can be rough anyway, as I have experienced a few time myself.