Zigui County, Yichang City, Hubei Province, central China - May 22, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of bridge connection work underway
2. Aerial shot of villages, mountains
3. Construction workers
4. Various of welders working
5. Various of Yangtze River, ship

The work of connecting two sections of the Xiangxi Yangtze River Bridge, an arch bridge with the world's longest span in central China's Hubei Province, was successfully completed on Tuesday morning.

The connection is the last and most difficult job with the biggest risks for the Yangtze River Bridge project in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, completion of which marks a further step to the whole-line run-through.

The 883.2-meter long Xiangxi Yangtze River Bridge which spans 531.2 meters and is 32.3 meters in breadth, is one of the follow-up work of the Three Gorges migration program in Zigui County.

It is a two-way and four-lane road bridge.

The person in charge of the project said that the bridge sits on the cliff edge of Xiling Gorge. Moreover, the mountain on both ends of the bridge, mostly formed by limestone, is geologically fragile with many karst caves. These posed great challenges to bridge construction.

The bridge is expected to start operation by the end of 2019.