Chinas longest underwater highway tunnel opens the Taihu tunnel

After nearly four years of construction, China s longest underwater highway tunnel is now open to vehicle traffic. At a length of kilometers miles), the Taihu tunnel stretches under Lake Taihu in eastern China s Jiangsu Province, about 50 kilometers east of Shanghai. According to government officials in Jiangsu, the tunnel was built at a cost 9. 9 billion yuan (about billion). Construction began on January 9, 2018. Over 2 million cubic meters of concrete were used to build the twoway tunnel, which has six lanes and is meters wide, reports China s official news agency, Xinhua. The ceiling of the tunnel has been outfitted with colorful LED lights, designed to prevent driver fatigue. The tunnel is part of the ChangzhouWuxi Highway, which opened to the public on December 30, 2021. It provides an alternative expressway for travelers journeying between Shanghai and Nanjing, Jiangsu s capital. Connecting the expressways of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, it