Because We Can

It’s very hard to tell where the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge actually begins. A sign indicating the entrance is followed by over five miles of elevated road snaking through the partially-completed skyscrapers of downtown Qingdao, a burgeoning coastal city of eight million in China’s Northeast, before finally hitting a line of tollbooths at water’s edge. Though little, if anything, visually distinguishes this five mile span leading up the bridge from the other freeways springing up across the city, it is certainly no ordinary stretch of road. Chinese state media have insisted that those five miles be considered part of the bridge, a distinction that pushes the overall length of the bridge past that of Lousiana’s Lake Pontchartrain Causeway to become the world’s longest over-water bridge. While it’s another accomplishment in a country where construction marvels are churned out by the day, its $2.8 billion price tag is no trivial amount. It’s worth asking: What does this money buy beyond a world record?
Two years after its construction in 2011, the fanfare has mostly subsided. The opening of the bridge, timed (and possibly rushed) to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, was met with a logjam of cars as the country celebrated another engineering achievement on China’s collective belt. Like many other major Chinese bridge openings, early reports described slow travel times as families would wait for spots on the shoulder of the road to stop and take pictures. Today, however, as my aunt and uncle take me across the bridge on a tour of the city, not only is our car the only one stopped on the shoulder, we almost seem to be the only people on the bridge at all. It’s not just the day we picked – early reports corroborate the notion that the bridge is being very lightly used. Built to accommodate 30,000 cars per day, actual usage hovers around 10,000. Chinese planners hoped that the bridge would encourage development in the ports of Huangdao, an up-and-coming region on the other end of the bridge. However, as cars continue to avoid the route, the promised benefits have yet to arrive.
Low traffic alone, however, cannot serve as an indictment of a bridge built to spur growth in a less-developed, less-populated segment of the bay. After all, Long Beaches’ Vincent Thomas Bridge and even the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway itself were once seen as “bridges to nowhere” that eventually paid off dividends by creating development in new regions. However, while those projects were built to open new opportunities, locals question whether the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge was actually built with those in mind. For them, it’s questionable that the bridge really serves as a shortcut, noting that it’s route crosses the widest part of the bay, not too far from a parallel shore – maximizing the distance of the bridge over water. While official reports give the time savings at 20-40 minutes, drivers report the actual difference as much less. On top of the inconvenience, locals further take issue with the large toll. At 50 RMB ($8.06) to cross, it’s a huge blow to the personal budgets of the local population.
Rather, the bridge seems less of an investment into China’s infrastructure as much as an investment into China’s image. Built during a period of massive stimulus, it has become a monument to flashiness over functionality. In a country where Olympic venues lay in tatters and Aircraft Carriers are purchased without suitable aircraft, it’s certainly not out of place.
It’s also certainly not the end. In an effort to combat the slowdown, China has pushed for another round of infrastructure projects, likely to result in many similar stories to that of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. It’s a trend that’s spread to inland cities as well, far from the traditional areas of growth and investment on China’s coast. In Changsha, a city of 7 million within China’s vast interior where Mao Zedong started his political career, developers have begun making plans for the tallest building in the world, with construction set to be completed within an unthinkable 7 months. The narrative sold might be one of development, but as the empty buildings and unused roads pile up, these are investments made not for the citizenry but for grandeur, with only the justification of “because we can.”
In terms of the record dispute, the Guinness Book of World Records arbitrated the situation by assigning separate titles for the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge and Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, naming them the longest aggregate bridge over water and longest continuous bridge over water respectively. It’s another entry into the record books, something China is proud of. However, if the bridge can’t meet its promises of development, then it’s doomed to remain only an accomplishment on paper.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons