On February 8, Ningbo's urban railway Xiangshan Line marked a new milestone as construction officially began on the south main bridge of the Xiangshan Port Cross-Sea Bridge.

At around 3 p.m., in the waters near the south side of the Xiangshan Port Bridge, the pile-driving vessel "Shuixinqi No. 1," supported by several escort vessels, began operations. A steel pile casing measuring 57 meters long, 3.5 meters in diameter and weighing 145 tons was slowly driven into the seabed, marking the official start of offshore construction on the Ningbo urban railway Xiangshan Line.

The urban railway Xiangshan Line project connects Ningbo's urban area with Xiangshan County, with a total length of about 61.45 kilometers and 10 stations. The cross-sea bridge section is 6.24 kilometers long. Starting from the Nanshan Tunnel, the bridge runs parallel to and 50 meters east of the Xiangshan Port Bridge on the Ningbo-Dongguan Expressway, crosses Xiangshan Port into Xiangshan County, and ends near Xiaoweizhuang in Xianxiang Town, Xiangshan County. Once the urban railway Xiangshan Line is completed, two parallel cross-sea bridges will stand over Xiangshan Port.

At present, construction has started at multiple stations on the urban Xiangshan Line, including Daxu Station, Hengxi Station, Tangxi Station, People's Square Station, Damuwan Station and Xiaoyangjiang Station, and full-scale construction will be achieved this year.

The project is China's first urban (suburban) railway cross-sea bridge. It is also the longest-span bridge in China built parallel to an existing line and China's longest-span composite steel box girder railway cable-stayed bridge. Multiple technologies, including the pure railway cable-stayed span, the steel box girder cable-stayed bridge main span, the ballastless track bridge main span and the main span of the bridge parallel to the existing line, are expected to achieve new breakthroughs in bridge construction in China and even worldwide.

It is also learned that in 2023, Ningbo Rail Transit will accelerate the construction of Lines 6, 7 and 8, the urban railway Xiangshan Line and Cixi Line, Phase II of Line 3 and the extension sections of Lines 1 and 4, ushering in a new phase of "eight lines advancing in parallel and comprehensive expansion." The annual planned investment in key projects is 26 billion yuan, and the length of new lines under construction will exceed 250 kilometers.