A view of the cross-straits railroad bridge that links Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province, with Fujian's Pingtan county Photo: cnsphotos

Track-laying work on China's first cross-Straits railroad bridge that links Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province, with Fujian's Pingtan county began on Sunday. 

The 16.34-kilometer bridge will be the longest of its type in the world. 

It is expected to be fully operational by October 2020, according to a report by thepaper.cn on Monday. 

It has the shortest distance among all bridges linking the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan, which some observers believe will eventually include a high-speed railway linking Pingtan with Taiwan. Pingtan is also the nearest place in the mainland to Taiwan.

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

The construction of the bridge is extremely difficult due to complex interactions among weather, winds and geographical conditions. 

The project will help 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 the southeast of China.