Construction of the Chinese section of the Sino-Russian Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge was completed on Saturday and a local official said the bridge is expected to open to traffic by July 2019. 

The Chinese part of the China-Russia railway bridge linking city of Tongjiang in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia on Oct 13, 2018. (Photo: Xinhua)

The 7,194-meter bridge will connect Tongjiang port in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with the Russia's Nizhneleninskoye.

The bridge will allow railway traffic, which is low-cost and more efficient than other modes of transport, to greatly boost bilateral trade, according to a China National Radio report on Saturday. 

Ensuring smooth traffic without the need to change wheels on the bridge, which can accommodate two railway gauges used by Chinese and Russian trains with a dual system, the report said. 

With an annual designed cargo capacity of 21 million tons, the bridge is expected to highly improve the transportation conditions of Tongjiang port and offer a shortcut between China and Russia. 

China and Russia have been sharing work on the bridge since 2014. According to Lin Yonghan, a project manager, all the major construction work by Chinese builders has been completed.

"Now it is the railings and other minor jobs, and we intend to finish these tasks before winter comes," Lin told the Global Times on Sunday. 

The northeastern province also vowed to work actively in other infrastructure projects, including the Belt and Road initiative and China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor in the coming years, to contribute to the establishment of the Heilongjiang Sino-Russian free trade zone, and to promote China's connectivity with central Europe and Asia, according to media reports.

Cover image: CGTN