The construction of its first rail bridge from Russia to China, connecting the two countries across the Amur River has just been completed. Construction of the 2,200-meter bridge between Nizhneleninskoye in Russia and Tongjiang city in China began in 2014, underlining Russia’s move to develop ties with China. The two sides jointly worked on the project, with China completing construction of its section across what it calls the Heilongjiang (Black Dragon) River in October 2018. Russia has now finished its side and installed the final steel beam into its section of the bridge.
The bridge is expected to serve as an international goods transportation channel with an annual shipment volume of 21 million tonnes and 1.5 million passengers. The bridge itself is 2.2 km long, while the corresponding track infrastructure is 19.9 km long. Totals costs, split between China and Russia amount to US$355 million. “China and Russia are developing their cross-border infrastructure fast” says Chris Devonshire-Ellis of Dezan Shira & Associates, “and this new bridge provides a route for Chinese goods into the Russian Far East and onto key fast developing cities such as Skovorodino, Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk, all part of the emerging Siberian commercial development and consumer landscape.”
The new bridge is expected to be operational from early 2022, authorities in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast announced today (August 13 2020). The Nizhneleninskoye (Jewish Autonomous Region) to Tongjiang (Heilongjiang province) bridge will be the first railway bridge between the two countries. It is expected to bring bilateral trade to new highs. The capital city of the Russian Jewish Autonomous Oblast is Birobidzhan and is linked to the Trans-Siberian railway. It has a population of about 75,000 with Yiddish the official language. Birobidzhan can be expected to develop as a major Chinese cross-border trading centre when the bridge opens for traffic.
This article was originally published on April 26th 2019 and has been updated to reflect additional news concerning the opening timeframe.
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