All sections of the 1,379-meter-long Jialing River Grand Bridge, a key structure of the Langzhong-Yingshan Expressway in southwest China's Sichuan Province, have been successfully joined as of Saturday.

With the joining of all sections completed, the grand bridge construction project has entered a next phase including the laying of road surface.

The 103-kilometer Langzhong-Yingshan Expressway connects Langzhong city and Yingshan County in Nanchong City of Sichuan Province.

The expressway is scheduled to open to traffic at the end of this year, when all counties in Nanchong will have expressway access.

Upon its operation, the expressway will cut travel time between Langzhong and Yingshan from 2.5 hours to just about 40 minutes.