The city government has dropped plans to build a pedestrian bridge covered with flowers as part of the 2010 World Expo site, but is considering extending the maglev line to the site, a senior official said on Saturday.

He said the bridge, which was to cross the Huangpu River and connect part of the expo site in Puxi and Pudong, was not feasible as it wouldn't be easy to walk across without blocking shipping along the waterway.

"The bridge, if constructed, could be good-looking but it can hardly be used to solve the realistic traffic problems," Huang Yaocheng, a deputy director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination said Saturday at a national seminar of intelligent transportation systems that was held in the city.

He said the plan was basically vetoed at a meeting in April of urban planning experts from all over the world.

He noted that a pedestrian bridge can't have too steep of a slope or it will be difficult to climb. A flat bridge, however, would block shipping on the river.

The bridge was to be built between the existing Nanpu and Lupu bridges.

He also said the government is considering other means of transportation -- such an underground passage -- for pedestrians to travel between the two banks of the Huangpu River within the three-square-kilometer Expo site.

Additionally, the city is also planning to extend the maglev line from the Longyang Road Station to the World Expo site. The government hasn't made a decision on the plan yet.

Zhao Guotong, a local engineer of transport and environmental protection, commented: "The government should encourage cycling when the World Expo is held because it is convenient for most residents while autos are only for the rich."

(Shanghai Daily July 26, 2004)