China part of cross-river railway bridge to Russia completed

China has completed its part of the first cross-river railway bridge connection with Russia.

When the bridge is fully completed, it will connect the city of Tongjiang in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia.

The length of the bridge is 2,215 meters, 1,886m. of it in China and 329m. in Russia. The construction of the Chinese side of the bridge was conducted by Chinese contractors, beginning in February 2014. The framework of the construction is designed to carry 21 million metric tons of freight annually. The Russian section is estimated to cost 10 billion rubles ($200 million).

While the Chinese part only has a small number of railway tracks to lay before the project is completely finished, Russian side is also accelerating the construction process according to Liu Weiquan, head of China's bridge construction headquarters.

The bridge will provide another major transportation corridor between the 2 countries boosting trade and local economy. China has become the largest trading partner and source of foreign investment for the east part of Russia. In the first half of 2018, Heilongjiang trade with Russia increased by 48.2% reaching the amount of $7.7 billion.