The Nanjing Third Yangtze River Bridge, built in 2005. [Photo/ js.qq.com]

The National Development and Reform Commission ratified Nanjing's request to build the Fifth Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge on July 28.

The two way bridge will have six lanes and will limit speeds to 100 km/h. It will span 10.3 km, 4.3 km of which will be above water.

The bridge's cable-stayed design allows it to span a longer distance than other bridges in the city and allow more shipping traffic to pass underneath. The distance between piers will allow two 600-meter-wide shipping channels to be established.

By 2020, six percent of the traffic across the Yangtze River in Nanjing, or more than 20,000 vehicles per day, will be transferred to the bridge.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the bridge will form part of the state highway 205 and 312.

The total cost of the bridge is estimated to be six billion yuan ($904.8 million). The central government will pay 826 million yuan from a special fund, while the rest will be paid by the Jiangsu Provincial Government and the municipal government of Nanjing.

Xu Yiwei contributed to the story.