Russian companies will complete the first cross-border railway bridge over the Amur river between Russia and China in the Jewish Autonomous region (EAO), Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – presidential envoy to the far Eastern Federal district Yuri Trutnev told reporters.
“We have decided to reject the participation of Chinese contractors”,
– the official said.
According to the representative, a specific company has not yet been selected, but, he said, he has no doubt that this work will be carried out in the shortest possible time.
Previously, China Civil Engineering Construction Company, which has already built the Chinese part of the bridge, was named as a possible construction contractor.
The length of the railway bridge over the Amur river near the village of Nizhneleninskoye and the Chinese city of Tongjiang is 2.2 km. Of these, the Russian part of the structure (excluding approaches to the bridge) is less than 300 meters. The cost of all work on the project is about 10 billion rubles.
The first agreement of intent for the construction of the bridge was signed between Russia and China in 2008.the final agreement on the project was reached in June 2013 within the framework of the St. Petersburg economic forum. To date, the Chinese part of the project has actually been completed – 17 pillars have been erected from the coast of China, and 16 spans have been installed. The Russian side will have to build four pillars and mount three spans. Then you need to build approaches to the bridge and the new Leninsk-2 station, where a checkpoint is planned. In addition, a logistics terminal will be created nearby.
The bridge is necessary for the export of iron ore concentrate from the kimkan-sutar mining and processing plant, which should start working this summer (before the bridge over the Amur is completed, its products will go through another Russian-Chinese border crossing, Grodekovo – Suifenhe). Transportation is estimated at the first stage at the amount of 4 million tons annually.
According to the government of the EAO, the cargo base for loading the bridge will be expanded. A large Deposit of ferromanganese ores is being prepared for development in the Oktyabrsky district of the region. The project is carried out by “Hemen – far East” LLC, established by Chinese businessmen. The company’s total investment has already amounted to about 1 billion rubles. This year, the investor intends to start designing a processing plant.
Agricultural products are also planned to be exported over the new bridge. A comprehensive agro-industrial Park “Vesna”is being created in the Jewish Autonomous region.
“It represents a new direction of cooperation in agriculture with China and will be implemented comprehensively on the territory of Smidovichi, Birobidzhan and Leninsky districts of the EAO. The construction of the Park will give an impetus to the development of animal husbandry, as well as the processing of agricultural products”,
– said Alexander Levinthal, the Governor of the EAO.
“Meanwhile, the far Eastern railway (far Eastern railway – a branch of Russian Railways) is preparing its infrastructure to increase traffic, both in transit and in local traffic. On the section of the TRANS – Siberian railway Arhara-Khabarovsk, most of which is located in the EAO, in the coming years, it is planned to reconstruct four stations, including one sorting”,
– said the head of the far Eastern Directorate of traffic management Vitaly Zelenko.
“The result is an increase in the capacity of the section from 73 to 88 pairs of freight trains. The carrying capacity will increase from 106 million tons to 125.7 million tons per year”,
– he informed.
Meanwhile, the reconstruction of the Lime station, which will work with the kimkan-Sutarsky GOK, is coming to completion.
“Almost the entire track part of the station is ready. Receiving-departure path is extended, and above them mounted a contact network, we now have to include new turnouts in the electric interlocking system”,
– said Deputy chief engineer of the far Eastern railway in Khabarovsk region .
In the future, it is planned to modernize the Birobidzhan – Leninsk section leading to the future bridge. The infrastructure of the line needs to be strengthened, since the speed of trains is limited on certain sections of the line.
The financial operator of the project until 2014 was the Far East and Baikal region development Fund (FRDV), and since 2014 has been the Russian-Chinese investment Fund, created by the Russian direct investment Fund (RDIF) and China Investment Corporation (CIC). The operator of the project to build the Russian part of the bridge is Rubicon LLC, owned by RDIF, FRDV and CIC.
Pavel Usov
Gudok.ru