China-Laos railway setting beams on cross-Mekong River bridge

April 13, 2020
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Photo taken on April 10, 2020 shows the construction site of T-beam setting of the China-Laos railway Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River bridge, some 230 km north of Lao capital Vientiane, Laos. (CREC-8/Handout via Xinhua)

The Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC), a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the construction and operation of the railway, told Xinhua on Friday that, beams are set on the Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River super major bridge.

On Thursday, as a prefabricated simply-supported T-beam with a weight of more than 130 tons landed stably on the piers, the beam setting of the Luang Prabang super major bridge along the China-Laos railway, undertaken by China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group (CREC-8), was commenced.

The Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River bridge, some 230 km north of Lao capital Vientiane, has a total length of 1,458.9 meters and is composed of 28 span T-beams and six spans continuous beams. It is the most difficult and most technically complex bridge on the entire railway.

The beam setting is expected to be completed by the end of this April.

With the experiences of epidemic prevention and control in China, the CREC-8 team has taken multiple measures to ensure the job of epidemic prevention and the construction progresses. Recently, the CREC-8 reduced the flow of people and going out beam fabrication yard and construction site as to reduce infection risks, and established a network communicating and interacting with relevant collaboration units and superior management units to track and coordinate the progress of construction in a timely manner.

The China-Laos Railway is a strategic docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.

The 414.332-km railway, with 198-km tunnels and 62-km bridges, will run from Boten border gate in northern Laos, bordering China, to Vientiane with an operating speed of 160 km per hour.

Photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows the construction site of T-beam setting of the China-Laos railway Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River bridge, some 230 km north of Lao capital Vientiane, Laos. (CREC-8/Handout via Xinhua)