Dalian building underwater traffic tunnel_美文

Dalian building underwater traffic tunnel

The tunnel requires 15 components, each 180 meters long and 35 meters wide.

When the tunnel opens, it will take only 10 minutes to drive through.

"That would be great," commuter Li Xianfeng said. "The existing 18-km-long road along the seaside takes about 40 minutes or even more in rush hour."

However, other residents writing on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, have expressed concerns.

"When Donglian Road (the second major artery in and out of downtown Dalian) opened in 2009, experts said traffic jams would be greatly reduced. Only a few years later, we need a new option. The new projects cannot catch up with the increasing number of new vehicles," said one user.

Statistics show there were more than 1.2 million vehicles in Dalian at the end of 2013, almost triple the number in 2008.

Sun Mingnan, a local legislator, suggested optimizing public transportation networks to get more residents to take buses instead of private cars.

"People will choose the bus if it is more convenient and comfortable," he said.

At present, Dalian has 23 designated bus lanes during rush hour, and more public transport improvements are expected in the coastal city.

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.