The Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in east China's Fujian Province (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

China's first cross-straits railroad bridge that links Fuzhou, capital of Southeast China's Fujian Province, with Fujian's Pingtan county began track laying on Sunday. 

The 16.34-kilometer-long bridge is the longest of similar type in the world. It is expected to be fully operational by October 2020, according to a report by news website thepaper.cn on Monday. 

It is also the nearest bridge in the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan, which some observers believe will eventually pave the way for the construction of a high-speed railway linking Pingtan with the island of Taiwan. Pingtan is also the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan.

The designated speed of the lower layer of the bridge for railways is 200 kilometers an hour (km/h) and the maximum speed for the highway will be 100 km/h, the report said.

Construction of the bridge is extremely difficult due to complex impacts from weather, winds and geographical conditions. 

Once completed, the project will shorten the travel distance between Fuzhou and Pingtan so that the county, where a free trade zone has been established, can better integrate into the regional railway transportation network, the report said. It will also boost economic development in Southeast China. 

Global Times