Nanjing, showing a willingness to protect finless porpoises, has adopted a new engineering plan that is more difficult and expensive but environmentally friendly to build the Jinwen Road Yangtze River-crossing bridge.
According to announcements, a dual-tower suspension bridge, rather three towers, is now proposed for the bridge that will connect Jinwen Road at the bridge’s south end and Qiaolin Avenue at its north end to enhance access to the road networks.
Yangtze River finless porpoises, known in China as water pandas due to their rarity, rank highest on the national protection list.
At 86.92 square kilometers, Nanjing Nature Reserve for Yangtze River Finless Porpoises starts in Xinjizhou in Jiangning District and runs along water bordering Anhui Province before extending eastward to the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. Surveys have shown that the Xinjizhou area, the reserve’s core area, are home to one third of the finless porpoise population (about 100) in the Nanjing section of the Yangtze River.
The city also adopted similar protective measures in the planning and construction of other transportation projects including Yangtze River 5th Bridge and Jianning West Road Tunnel.
