By Rui Hu, EDITOR
Propelled by the Belt and Road Initiative, the process of the international railway is accelerating. A Chongqing-based central enterprise’s participated in the construction, of a bridge that has connected the lines of the China-Laos Railway.
Bridge for China-Laos Railway
On July 28, as the last concrete beam was put in place, the main section of the Luang Prabang Cross-Mekong River Railway Bridge was finished. Constructed by No.1 Engineering Company of China Railway No.8 Engineering Group Co., Ltd., the bridge was seven months ahead of schedule. Its success marks another remarkable achievement of the landmark project on the China-Laos Railway.
The China-Laos Railway is a government-to-government cooperation project advanced by the top leaders of the two countries and jointly proposed in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Lao’s strategy of turning the land-locked state into the land-connected state, aka, a connection project. This 414 kilometer-long railway starts from the Mohan/Boten port crossing of the China–Laos border at the north and runs south to Vientiane, with the whole line constructed under the management and standards of Chinese design. The design speed is 160 km/h, electrified, for passenger and freight traffic. The construction commenced in December 2016.
The bridge, under construction
Along the line, the Luang Prabang Cross-Mekong River Railway Bridge is seated in Luang Prabang, Laos’ ancient city of the world cultural heritage, and spans over Mekong River. It is 1,459 meters long with 34 spans, and the five major piers are all in this River. The prestressed concrete continuous beam, 64×164 meters, stretches over Mekong River and features the most challenging construction difficulties and complicated techniques in this program.
Since the bridge’s commencement on June 29, 2017, the No.1 Company of CREC-8 has overcome numerous difficulties and completed the closure after 25 months’ painstaking efforts.
Besides, the China-Laos Railway is scheduled to open to traffic by December 2021. By then, it will be only a 3-hour drive from the China-Laos border to Vientiane, with plans to connect with Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries.
Source: CQCB
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