Macao's first cable-stayed bridge designed with double deck carriageway was closed Monday, the construction of which will be completed upon schedule by the year end.

The third bridge linking the Macao Peninsular and the Taipa Island adopted the world's first design of pylon type for cable-stayed bridge. Cable of the bridge stays at 10-meter intervals andarrays in shape of a harp.

Built in August 2002, the 2,200-meter bridge will have six lanes in the upper layer and four lanes in the lower. The lower floor will be shut down in common days and open only when a typhoon hits the city. Another feature is that on the bridge there will be a M-shaped arched door that signals the capital letter of "Macao".

The bridge construction was the largest public project since Macao returned to the motherland at the end of 1999.

Macao Peninsula and Taipa Island were first linked by a two-lane bridge in 1974, greatly boosting the development of the island. But the bridge found it increasingly difficult to undertake the mounting traffic in the coming decade, prompting the second cross-sea bridge to occur in 1994.

The vast majority of Macao residents still live on the peninsular bordering Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province, while Taipa Island accommodates the Macao International Airport, the University of Macao, a large stadium, a horse-racing ground and residential quarters.

Macao's chief executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah and director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao Bai Zhijian attended the bridge closure ceremony Monday.