It took over seven minutes to get across at 80kph. It's over 23 kilometers long.
The bridge is in Incheon, South Korea and its purpose is to take people from the growing city of Incheon, near Seoul to the ten-year-old Incheon International Airport. It was built to alleviate the traffic problems on the old bridge to the North.
The bridge cost $1.4 Billion USD to build and was completed in 2009.
This is the first amazing piece of infrastructure I've come across on our trip and it got me thinking, why haven't we built anything like this in Australia recently?
The endless scoping studies and arguments over cost and wastage is stopping Australia (and seemingly also the United States) from building truly great infrastructure projects.
"But", you may say, "That's an essential bridge, and it only cost $1.4 Billion USD! Australia's National Broadband Network will cost over $30 Billion, and who knows how many Billions an East Coast Very Fast Train would cost?!"
"Well..." I would say "the Incheon Bridge is not all that's happening in the area to stimulate growth"
Some other projects in the planning or construction stages in the Incheon/Seoul area include nine new subway lines, a new light rail service, several massive building projects including 151 Incheon Tower which is under construction right next to the Incheon bridge and an extension to the Incheon airport.
The airport was built 10 years ago on reclaimed land between two islands after it became apparent that the old Seoul airport would not be able to cope with increased traffic due to increased tourism after the 1988 olympics. Does that remind you of anything?
My point is that arguing over petty problems is going to leave Australia behind. Places like Incheon, Macau and Dubai are getting things done, and we're not.
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