The new second crossing of the bay will have a total length of 66km. It will link Shanghai’s Jinshan district with Cixi City in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

The road-rail bridge will reduce the distance between Shanghai and Ningbo to 160km from 200km. The Ningbo government did not provide cost for the project, but said its traffic infrastructure budget for the year, which includes the new bridge, is US$2.95bn.

The new bridge is part of a wider scheme to improve traffic links between Yangtze Delta cities. The first Hangzhou Bay Bridge opened in 2008.

Last month, work got under way on a record-breaking cable-stayed bridge that will reduce the drive time between Shanghai and Nantong in Jiangsu Province to about an hour, from three hours at present.