Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge
Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge (Amur River Bridge) is an international Sino-Russian railroad bridge linking Nizhneleninskoye (in Russian: Нижнеленинское) in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast with Tongjiang (in Chinese: 同江) in Heilongjiang Province.
Projected uses
[edit]A major use of the bridge will be to transport iron ore from the Kimkan open-pit mine in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast that is owned by IRC Limited, which is partly owned by Petropavlovsk plc.[1][2] Petropavlovsk plc will participate in financing the bridge's construction.[1] The bridge is expected to transport more than 3 million metric tons of cargo and 1.5 million passengers per year.[3]
History
[edit]In 1995, China and Russia signed an agreement to build a bridge across the Amur and Ussuri rivers.
The bridge was first proposed in 2007 by Valery Solomonovich Gurevich, the vice-chairman of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.[4] Gurevich said that the proposal to construct a bridge across the river was first suggested by the Russian side, in view of growing cargo transportation demands.
In 2013, the transport ministries of Russia and China signed a general construction agreement.[5] During President Putin's visit to China in May 2014, another agreement about the construction of the bridge was signed by Russian and Chinese officials.[6] In September 2014, Russia and China founded a joint company which will control the process of building the bridge.[7]
In November 2014, the local Russian media reported that a significant amount of the construction work had been carried out on the Chinese part of the bridge, but hardly anything had been done on the Russian part.[8] In June 2016, the Russian government selected SK Most Group, a well-connected private Russian company led by Ruslan Baisarov, to work on the project.[9]
By July 2016, the Chinese portion of the bridge was finished but work had not started on the much shorter Russian portion.[9]
In December 2016, work began on the Russian portion of the bridge.[citation needed]
The Russian Direct Investment Fund together with Chinese partners financed more than 70% of the construction of the Russian part of the bridge. The VEB.RF state development corporation and Russian Railways also acted as investors in the project.[10]
Completion of structural link between the two sides of the bridge was completed in March 2019.[11][12] Opening of rail traffic has been repeatedly delayed, with the December 2019 estimate being "the end of 2020",[13] and then 3rd quarter of 2021.[14] The bridge was finally completed on August 17, 2021,[15] and the first Russian commercial train entered China on November 16, 2022.[16] The launch of traffic on the bridge opened a new transport corridor between Russia and China, which removed a number of existing infrastructure restrictions. The distance for transporting goods to the northern provinces of China has been reduced by more than 700 km compared to existing routes.[17]
Design
[edit]The bridge was designed by Russia's Giprostroymost institute, satisfying both Russian and Chinese standards. In 2014, it was reported that the main structure over the Amur River runs north-south and will consist of 20 110-meter steel through-truss spans. The bridge will have both a standard gauge (1435 mm) track and a Russian gauge (1520 mm) track. However, the two tracks will be offset by only 800 mm, so that only one track can be used at any given time.[18]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b ANDREW E. KRAMER (June 9, 2010), "China's Hunger Fuels Exports in Remote Russia", The New York Times
- ^ "UPDATE 2-Shares of Petropavlovsk's IRC slump in Hong Kong debut". Reuters. Oct 21, 2010. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016.
- ^ "Work Starts On First China-Russia Highway Bridge". Radio Free Europe. December 25, 2016.
- ^ "China-Russia Trade to Top US$40b". China Daily. 2003-06-18. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ^ "Строительство первого железнодорожного моста соединяющего Китай и Россию начнется в 2009 году" (Construction of the first railway bridge connecting Russia and China will start in 2009) China.org.cn, 2008-11-27. (in Russian)
- ^ Мост через Амур между РФ и КНР начнут строить в ближайшие месяцы (Construction of the bridge across the Amur between the RF and the PRC will start within a few months), 2014-05-20
- ^ "Russia and China establish company to build a bridge across Amur River" (Press release). TASS. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
- ^ "Далеко в отрыв ушли от коллег из ЕАО китайские строители ж/д моста Нижнеленинское-Тунцзян" [The Chinese builders of the Nizhneleninskoye-Tongjiang railway bridge are far ahead of their colleagues from the Jewish A.O.]. eaomedia.ru (in Russian). November 5, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Higgins, Andrew (July 16, 2016). "An Unfinished Bridge, and Partnership, Between Russia and China". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
- ^ "Russia, China launch traffic on the first-ever railway bridge across Amur River". TASS. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
- ^ "Russia Completes Construction of First-Ever Rail Bridge to China", The Moscow Times, March 21, 2019, retrieved August 25, 2019
- ^ Россия и Китай соединили железнодорожный мост через Амур [Russia and China connected a railway bridge across the Amur] (in Russian), RBK Group, March 21, 2019, retrieved August 25, 2019
- ^ "Railway bridge over Amur river to China will be built by end of 2020, envoy says". TASS. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
- ^ "Новости Хабаровска".
- ^ "First cross-river railway bridge between China and Russia completed". CNN. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
- ^ "Журнал Эксперт".
- ^ "Russia, China launch traffic on the first-ever railway bridge across Amur River". TASS. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
- ^ "Construction of 2·2 km Amur bridge begins". Railway Gazette International. March 14, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
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