Shanghai is preparing to build a cross-river expressway, involving one of the world's largest tunnels, to Chongming Island.

"The plan has been selected but we are still waiting for a final approval by the State Council,'' said Zhou Wenbo, general manager of the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co, the company in charge of tunnel construction for the project.

Zhou also revealed that construction of a trial section of the tunnel would begin by the end of this year.

Under the government's plan, the Shanghai-Chongming expressway, totalling 25.5 kilometres, will include a 8.95-kilometre tunnel connecting Shanghai's Pudong district with Changxing Island. A 10.29-kilometre cable-stayed bridge will also be built between Changxing and Chongming islands.

The expressway would have six lanes, designed for speeds of 100 kilometre per hour, according to the plan, which was released earlier this month.

Huang Jinyuan, a senior engineer with the Shanghai Urban Construction Design and Research Centre, revealed that the tunnel section of the expressway would be the longest in the country. It would have a diameter of 15.2 metres, a possible world record.

Huang, who was involved in the project's feasibility studies, said the whole expressway would cost around 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) and take at least five years to complete.

The expressway would further expand in the future to connect Chongming with Jiangsu Province in the north via a cross-sea bridge, according to Huang.

Chongming, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the East China Sea, is China's third largest island with a total area of 1,041 square kilometres.

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