Russian Dep PM expects bridge across Amur River to China to open in 2021
BIROBIDZHAN. Sept 22 (Interfax) - Construction of the railway bridge across the Amur River from Nizhneleninskoye in Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region to Tongjiang in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang is likely to be completed in 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, who is also the Russian president's envoy to the Far East Federal District, said on Tuesday.
"I think [the construction of the bridge] will be finished in 2021. You know, I really don't like construction delays, but there were genuinely reasons for this here. You know that the river bed deepened quite substantially, and specifically from the Russian side. But in any case, the bridge needs to be completed, there's not that much left to go," Trutnev told reporters after the inauguration of Jewish Autonomous Region Governor Rostislav Goldshtein.
The deputy CEO of project investor Rubikon LLC, Murad Magomedov said in August that the completion of the bridge might be postponed from the third quarter of 2021 to a later date due to revisions in design documentation and the need to raise additional investment.
He recalled that the contract to build the Russian side of the bridge and railway approaches to it was signed with JSC SK Most. The contract is worth about 9 billion rubles. As of August 3, construction of the bridge and railway infrastructure was 72% complete, with the bridge part 91% complete and the railway track 77% complete.
The deputy director of the Khabarovsk branch of state-owned Rosgranstroy, Yury Gorislavets said at the time that SK Most revised the design and working documentation due to errors on determinations. The technical and cost estimate parts of the project were approved by state expert review office Glavgosexpertiza. The overall cost of the work increased by more than 232 million rubles. The contractor is not doing any work due to the lack of additional financing.
The bridge was initially expected to open in June 2019, but then the date was pushed back to the second half of that year. Later, Russia's Far East Development Ministry announced plans to complete the bridge in June 2020 at the latest.
