You can get a lot done when you don't have big government and unions to deal with.

When I was in Shanghai for Formula one, I rode a bike to the buses that went to the track every day. One night I got lost on the bike ride back to the hotel. The next day I realized it was because they repaved one mile of road that was on my route within the time I was at the race, (maybe 9hrs) and it threw me off. Would have taken a week here minimum.

Right! Because if there is one thing we know about China, it is that power is not concentrated in the national government. And when it comes to communist governments, you can almost always be certain that there is not an outsized number of civil servants.

How long does this take in the US (all jokes aside)?

Kind of gross propaganda, unless that's just how their bridges come out of the packaging.

Of all the worlds cultures I'd think China would find a solution for asphalt.

They replaced two much smaller freeway bridges near me in the last 15 years. They each took over 2 years to complete...but we have wet winters (N California) that slowed construction even more.

*timeshift *music *wheels

Adding video to channels (Music, Timeshift, Wheels) - requested by ant.

while this is impressive (and makes a lot of sense to minimize traffic disruptions), it's not really apples-to-apples comparison because the replacement bridge piece (off to the left) obviously took a lot of time to build, which isn't in the video.
Very few bridge sites have this 'staging' option.

And I would suggest that it was done that way because the bridge in question has 5 lanes each way and probably handles more traffic in a day than most US bridges would see in a week...

You can see the bus traffic, for example, in the background. At one point, there were 20+ buses lined up in the background.

And the point about low WH&S and longevity issues made earlier is relevant, China has a shocking amount of accidents related to shoddy work with inferior materials.

And re: BK's brainfart, lol, China doesn't have big government?? You're an awful fucking troll BK. You have to be a troll. There can't be someone that fucking ignorant.

It took 8 months to replace a much smaller bridge on a section of highway I drive on every week. On one side, they build a new bridge beside the old one, routed traffic onto it, then tore down the old one and build the new one. After that they routed traffic from the other side onto the new bridge (making it 1-lane each way) and replaced the bridge on that side. That was a couple of years ago.

Now they're replacing another bridge, smaller than the previous one, a few miles from it. There was enough room between the lanes to build a bridge between them, route both sides onto it and replace both sides. That went a little quicker, I think it went on for 3-4 months. They just opened the new bridges a few weeks ago. It looks like they're keeping the "temp" bridge up on this spot though because they've merged all three into what looks like one bridge, but it's still a 4-lane section of highway.

Fixed that for you

You can just sometimes get a lot done.

UK, Caversham Road:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL9m00_OBrI

USA, Oregon 38 Elk Creek:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dTZIZmLlWs

Canada, Carling Bridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wzTPpSxhNc