WATCH: Mammoth 90m machines building China's bridges

The pace of China’s infrastructure boom is breathtaking and now we can see why. Behold, the 580-ton behemoth that erects bridges in China:

The really remarkable thing is not that there is a machine as long a football pitch plonking whole stretches of highway onto support pillars, but according to Discovery, these badboys are commonly used in China, and each one is custom-made for the bridge it builds.

But before you fret about all those mammoth bridge launchers rusting away in the world’s biggest scrapyard, the machines are designed to be reused, and can be disassembled and customized for another project.  In fact, the average machine will construct more than 700 bridge spans before it's retired.

Here’s an animated look at the mechanics of the bridge building:

[Image and video via Tech Insider]