Russia and China have signed an agreement to build a cross-border bridge over the Amur River between the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk and China’s Heihe Province.
Construction is due to begin this summer and will be implemented by a 50-50 Russian-Chinese joint venture known as Amur Heilongjiang.
The cost of the project is estimated at US$300 million, of which some US$205 million will be provided by the Russian side, with the remainder coming from Chinese investors. Giprostroymost Institute was appointed as a general designer of the bridge.
According to Andrew Tyaglo, Minister of Transport & Construction for Russia’s Priamurja region, this will be a 3.7km-long combined, two-lane bridge, that will carry both highway and railway traffic in both directions.
Under the terms of the project, the bridge will be opened to highway traffic in 2019, with railway traffic scheduled to start the following year.
Priamurja region’s Ministry of Transport & Construction said that the bridge is intended to facilitate container cargo transport of Russian soy, corn, oil and other commodities to China.
This is the second Russian-Chinese cross-border bridge to be built by the same partners; construction of another bridge over the Amur River began in 2013; this crossing will link the Russian town of Nizhneleninskoye with the Chinese city of Tongjiang.
