Construction of a high-speed railway bridge set to shorten the travel time between Shanghai and Zhejiang's coastal city Ningbo started recently. The 25-kilometer Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Railway Bridge is an important section of the high-speed railway connecting Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province, an integral part of the one-hour traffic network in the Yangtze River Delta region.

To meet the requirements of further integration of the Yangtze River Delta region, which aims to become the world's sixth largest urban agglomeration, the first step is to build a one-hour traffic network centering on Shanghai.

"The ideal one-hour traffic network shall include cities such as Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou of Jiangsu provinces as well as Jiaxing and Ningbo, covering a total area of more than 20,000 square kilometers," said Lu Dadao, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A high-speed railway connecting Shanghai and Ningbo has been put forward for the vision with the construction of a cross-sea bridge being a major challenge.

Upon its scheduled completion in five years, the new section of railway with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will reduce travel time from Shanghai to Ningbo from two hours to one hour. It will also shorten the traveling hours from Beijing to Ningbo by 90 minutes to five hours.