MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The construction of the bridge across the Amur River connecting Russia and China is expected to be finished in 2018 since all the organizational difficulties are over, the "Izvestia" newspaper reported, citing Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov.
According to the newspaper, the entire project was supposed to be commissioned in 2017 but stalled due to obstacles. The situation moved forward after Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev instructed to determine contractors and deadlines.
The project involves the construction of two bridges between Russia’s Blagoveshchensk and China’s Heihe and the city of Tongjiang in China's Heilongjiang Province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region for freight traffic. The main bridge would increase the turnover of cargo by approximately 10 million tonnes and significantly shorten the distance for shipments through Heilongjiang to Moscow and Khabarovsk.
