Chapter 1248 There is a toll station 100 meters away, please slow down
Chen Lifu was frightened by the construction cost of the Wusong River Bridge, which was 520,000 taels of silver.
Even though Shanghai's fiscal revenue is very high, there are many places to spend money. Shanghai invests a lot of money in municipal construction every year. Otherwise, Shanghai's urban development would not be so fast.
Moreover, Shanghai's municipal construction basically relies on the Shanghai County Government's own finances, rather than relying on central funding like Jinling City or other big cities. For example, Jinling City, how can it be possible based on Jinling City's own fiscal revenue?
To support such a huge urban development plan, the central government provides a lot of funding every year to maintain it.
Another example is provincial capital cities such as Guangzhou, Nanchang, and Wuchang, which also have strong provincial financial support. Otherwise, they alone would not be able to develop so fast.
But only Shanghai County relies on its own financial strength, not only spending its own money, but also supporting neighboring counties. For example, this year, in order to support Qingpu County, which also belongs to Songjiang Prefecture, to dredge large and small rivers to provide flood control capabilities, in response to the central government
In response to the call for the construction of water conservancy facilities, Shanghai County supported Qingpu County with a total of 150,000 taels of silver.
The fiscal revenue is large, but the expenses are also large. This is the current financial problem of Shanghai County.
In recent years, large-scale municipal construction has been carried out almost every year. For example, last year, Shanghai County promoted the plan to expand roads in the urban area. It is expected to expand and renovate the roads in the urban area.
It is expected that the main arterial roads in the city will be expanded and gravel and cinder will be paved.
As for a few, mainly the riverside avenues in various districts are paved with cement.
In order to meet the ever-increasing traffic demand, especially freight demand, there are so many four-wheeled carriages plying several main roads every day that the roads built in the past are already overwhelmed.
Building roads is a very huge expense, not to mention that they plan to lay cement pavement on some sections of the road. This will easily cost hundreds of thousands of taels.
Every year, municipal construction will spend a considerable part of Shanghai's fiscal revenue, and Shanghai's fiscal budget, like other local state governments, follows the central government and basically determines the next year's fiscal budget at the end of each year.
Income budget and expenditure budget.
It is now March, and the fiscal expenditure budget has already been determined. Only a small part has been left as emergency funds, and this part of the emergency funds is also the funds that Chen Lifu can use. It is not much, only a mere
Just over three hundred thousand taels of silver.
It is true that these more than 300,000 taels of silver are already comparable to the entire fiscal revenue of many governments for a year, but for a special place like Shanghai, it is pitifully small.
And even if it were all taken out, it wouldn't be enough to build the Wusong River Bridge!
Chen Lifu expressed financial difficulties and was afraid that he would not be able to get the five hundred thousand taels of silver to repair the bridge. However, Kang Weide did not care about this. He was not here for business. There was no need to bargain with Chen Lifu. He was only here by invitation.
, and the preliminary design plan has been given, he doesn’t care how to solve the funding problem in the future, or even how to solve the specific construction.
After giving Chen Lifu this preliminary design plan, he patted his butt and went back to Jinling City, saying that he would leave a student here. If the construction really needs to be confirmed in the future, he would go to Jinling City to find him, and
If you have any detailed design questions later, just contact his students directly.
He Kang Weide has a lot to do on his hands. As an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology and one of the few professional architectural design talents in the country, a lot of engineering designs are waiting for him, such as the Dangtu Industrial Zone.
The expansion plan is the big project he has on hand now. It is the expansion plan of the largest heavy industry in the country, and it is much more important than a mere bridge.
But Kang Weide received a letter from Shanghai, saying that he was asked to design a bridge on the Wusong River, and there were many high requirements, such as a huge load-bearing capacity, a requirement that it should not affect ship navigation, and low maintenance costs.
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At that time, he knew that with today's technical means, only steel bridges could meet such needs.
Once such a steel bridge is completed, it will be a record-breaking steel bridge. Otherwise, Kang Weide really has no interest in coming to Shanghai.
In terms of domestic steel technology, steel has been used in bridges for a long time. Many places have already used steel to build bridges, and the most widely used one should be the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, which is currently under construction in Zhenjiang.
In order to allow the railway to cross rivers and mountains, railway bridges have been built on a large scale using steel. However, the steel bridges used in railway construction are relatively small and not very noticeable.
As for the buildings where steel and cement are used together, there are even more buildings. Among the palaces being built today, quite a few buildings are reinforced concrete structures, which are poured directly.
If the Wusong River Bridge can be built, then this bridge with a length of more than 110 meters and a width of 19 meters will be the longest and widest steel bridge in the Tang Empire. It will basically represent
The pinnacle of technology.
From the bridge piers to the road surface, and even every rivet, it will be the most advanced technological level of the Tang Empire.
It was precisely because of the attraction of these factors that Kang Weide put aside the design work of many major projects at hand, went to Shanghai for on-site inspection, and then carried out preliminary design work.
Kang Weide patted his butt and left, leaving Chen Lifu with a sad face!
He repeatedly looked at the design sketch in his hand, and the more he looked at it, the more beautiful it became. The steel bridge designed by Kang Weide adopts an all-steel riveted structure. The large steel structure makes people feel full of high-tech atmosphere just by looking at the drawing.
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Where is Shanghai?
Shanghai was not only the largest city in the Tang Empire, but also the most important and largest industrial area in the Tang Empire.
The more Chen Lifu looked at it, the more he felt that only such a large, majestic and high-tech steel bridge could represent Shanghai's status.
Build, must build!
As for where the money to build the bridge will come from, Chen Lifu has to think carefully about this, but no matter what, it is impossible to build it directly with Shanghai's financial funds, otherwise it will not be repaired at all.
At the same time, he must act quickly. His term as Shanghai County Magistrate has already passed one year. According to the official practice of the Tang Empire, a term of three years is usually one. However, for the sake of regional stability and policy consistency,
Sometimes the Ministry of Civil Affairs will also relax this term to five years.
Therefore, Chen Lifu's term in Shanghai ranged from two years to four years.
And building a steel bridge, even if it is faster, is estimated to take two years, and this does not include the preparation time.
Chen Lifu was also a person who did whatever he wanted. Within a few days, he took the design drawings and gathered a group of people under him to start thinking about how to build the bridge.
Or to put it more bluntly, how to solve the problem of funding for bridge repair.
Someone directly proposed the plan of borrowing money from the bank, then collecting bridge tolls, and using the bridge tolls to repay the loan. The man waved his arms and said: "We have set up toll stations on the left and right of the bridge. In order to let the people know, we can open toll stations 100 meters away from the bridge."
A sign is set up everywhere, saying: There is a toll station 100 meters away, please slow down!"
Someone objected on the spot: "Once completed, the Wusong River Bridge will be an important bridge connecting the north and south banks. At the same time, the secondary bridge is also a bridge specially built by us to develop the north bank. If there is a toll, it will inevitably increase the traffic for pedestrians and goods.
Toll costs, in this case, are inconsistent with our original intention!"
"Building and laying bridges is not only for development, but also for people's livelihood. Is it possible that in the future, there will be poor people who cannot afford to pay the toll to cross the bridge, and you will still stop them from crossing?"
"Huh, if there is no charge, how can we cover the construction cost of 500,000 taels? This is not 50,000 taels, but 500,000 taels of silver. When the Second Industrial Zone was developed, a total of only
It's only more than one million taels of silver. From last year to now, my Shanghai Yamen has spent only more than 600,000 taels of silver on repairing the main roads in the city."
"Even so, we can't charge it. If we have to charge, we might as well not build it at all. I don't want to be pointed at and called us highway bandits!"
"Fart, according to what you said, we should not engage in construction at all. We will not do it if we are afraid of being scolded, and we will not do things if we are afraid of making mistakes. This is a serious political mistake on your part. When the Holy Emperor inspected the Ministry of Civil Affairs last year, he said: All officials should dare
To set an example for the people in the world, we should not rule by doing nothing, let alone not do things just because we are afraid of doing something wrong!"
"I want to take part in your work. Those of you who are afraid of difficulties are serving as officials in the court. This is a disaster for the people!"
When someone started to blame someone and raised the topic to the level of political incorrectness, Chen Lifu knew that he should stop their quarrel, otherwise he would say too much, and if he really said something treasonous and outrageous when he got angry, it would be very troublesome.
That’s big!
Chen Lifu immediately stretched out his hand and pressed it softly, and then said: "Everyone, please be quiet. I am a herdsman on behalf of the emperor, and you all work for the emperor. Although everyone's methods and ideas are different, the purpose is still the same.
It's all for the emperor and the people, don't get angry!"
When Chen Lifu said this, he looked around and said, "Everyone, please sit down!"
Chen Lifu spoke. No matter how angry the others were, they could only endure it. Seeing everyone sitting down, Chen Lifu was also thinking about using a loan to build the bridge and then using the collected bridge tolls to repay the loan.
This method seems to be unworkable.
It has caused such a big conflict among officials. If this is announced, I don’t know how much discussion it will cause.