<P>Pingtan Haixia Rail-Road Bridge to open in 2019</P>

Construction on the Pingtan Haixia Rail-Road Bridge, China's first cross-sea rail-road bridge, has taken a further step toward completion with its last support pillar due to be put in place soon.

The Pingtan Haixia Rail-Road Bridge is a 16.3-km bridge connecting the capital of Southeast China's Fujian province, Fuzhou, with the island city of Pingtan off the coast of the Taiwan Strait.

The bridge has two layers, with the upper level carrying a six-lane highway and the lower level bearing a double-track railway.

The cross-sea rail link is part of the 88-km Fuzhou-Pingtan railway. It will start from Songxia Port in neighboring Changle county, stretch southeast over the Yuanhong channel, the Guyumen channel, Changyu Island, Xiaolian Island, the Xiaolian-Dalian island channel, Dalian Islet, Haitan Strait, and finally reach Su’ao town on Pingtan Island.

With an estimated investment of 10.9 billion yuan ($1.78 billion), the bridge is expected to be open to traffic in 2019.

A cofferdam is lifted into the sea during the construction on Pingtan Haixia Rail-Road Bridge. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]