HEFEI, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The steel structures for a new rail-road bridge over the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhu, east China's Anhui Province, joined together Friday, paving the way for the operation of the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway in 2020.

Spanning 588 meters between the two main towers, the double-decker cable-stayed bridge has eight lanes for cars on the upper deck and four rail tracks on the lower deck.

Two tracks are specifically designed for the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway, while the other two tracks are reserved for inter-city railways.

The construction of the bridge, a key project for the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway, started at the end of 2014.

The railway is scheduled to open to traffic in 2020. With a designed speed of 350 km per hour, this railway will link the city of Shangqiu in central China's Henan Province, with Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, and Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.