Confused by Thika road? If so your life as a driver in CHina could be more than a miserary if your Passenger Service Vehicle (PSV) or rather your, in particular, was to use your car via Huangjuewan interchange.
Five suspended levels and automobiles leaving in all directions: a new highway interchange is driving motorists to tears, as they find themselves lost in a concrete maze resembling a plate of spaghetti.
After eight years of construction, the Huangjuewan interchange was completed last week on the outskirts of Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis in southwest China.
The structure balances five layers of traffic with the highest 37 metres above ground. No less than 15 ramps have been built to allow vehicles to move from one level to another, in eight directions, according to the municipality’s website.
What if you chose wrong direction?
The Huangjuewan Overpass, which began being constructed in 2009, features five layers, 20 ramps and eight directions.
But an official in charge of the project insists it’s really easy to get around using the signs.
He told People’s Daily Online: ‘Even if you take the wrong way, then you only have to go around one kilometre or even just five or six hundred metres before there is an option to correct the wrong turn.’
An official on Chongqing’s urban and rural construction committee told Xinhua news agency that the complex design was necessary to link the city’s core, airport, and expressway, with each ramp leading to a different zone.
Internet users comment
This navigational nightmare has set the internet ablaze.
“If you miss a ramp, you will reach Chongqing one day later,” warned one user on the social network Weibo.
“My GPS told me: go where you want and leave me alone!”, a commenter joked, while another christened the city “Chongqing, the city that you’ll never leave.”
One driver was more reassuring: “Huangjuewan, a legendary bridge in eight directions and five stories: I took it without a GPS and without getting lost!”