Construction of a key project of the Ya'an-Kangding Expressway, which is the first expressway to reach the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, commenced Wednesday.

The first main cable strand of the Xingkangte Bridge, part of an expressway that connects the Ya'an city of Sichuan and Kangding county in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan was successfully installed on Wednesday, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The main cables of the bridge, which spans 1,100 meters across Luding River in Ganzi will be erected by August and the bridge will be completed by August 2018, Xinhua said.

The project is the first suspension bridge in the province that has been built in this complicated terrain, said the Sichuan Daily.

A construction worker told Xinhua that there are two main cables used for the bridge, each totaling 1,754 meters and weighing 5,234 tons, with a tensile force of about 26,000 tons.

Some 34,034 steel wires will be used for the cables, with the total length surpassing 60,000 kilometers.

With a total length of 135 kilometers, the Ya'an-Kangding Expressway received an investment of 23 billion yuan ($3.3 billion), Xinhua reported, adding that the section which runs from Ya'an to Luding is scheduled to be open to traffic by the end of the year.

The entire expressway project will open to traffic by 2018, and it will cut travel time from Chengdu to Kanding from current six hours to four, also making it easier to reach Tibet, which is adjacent to Sichuan.