The construction of the bridge will begin in the summer of 2016.

At the 27th Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair Russia and China signed an agreement on construction of a cross-border bridge “Blagoveshchensk (Amur oblast’, Russia) – Heihe (Heilongjiang province, China)”, RIA Novosti reports.

In accordance with plans, the bridge will be built across the Amur river. At the first stage a road bridge of the second category with two lanes will be built. At the second stage it is planned to construct a rail bridge.

Preparations for the construction lasted for more than 20 years. The new border bridge will be built during three years, the commissioning should take place in 2019, the estimated  start date of the construction is July 2016. Earlier, the Governor of the Amur region, Alexander Kozlov, stated that construction “will begin until September 2016”.

The Russian part of the border bridge will be built by Russian contractor, in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement. During the construction of the bridge more than 1,400 workplaces will be created. 2/3 parts of the bridge will take place on the Russian side. The cost of the project is estimated at 18.8 billion – Russia has already invested 14 billion rubles and China 5.2 billion respectively.