NPR reports that the new super-sized cruise ships are having trouble reaching a brand-new terminal specially built for them in Shanghai:
As the international cruising companies hold their first conference at the new cruise terminal, finished in August at a cost of $260 million, there’s praise for the terminal’s modernity and its environmental friendliness. But it is clear the bridge is a problem.
Today’s trend is towards bigger and bigger super cruisers, so as time goes on, the problems caused by the low bridge will get worse. Two-thirds of cruise ships currently being built will be too big to get under the bridge. So how did this oversight happen?
“They started building this project without thinking it through carefully,” says Liu Changshou, a retired engineer who has blogged about the botched decision. He says the city government should have known better, and he accuses the lower-level district government of ulterior motives in lobbying hard for the terminal.
