The two sides of the Second Chroy Changva Bridge were connected Wednesday in a ceremony presided over by Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek. He said the Chinese-funded bridge would be completed by September.
“The bridge was projected to cost $27.5 million to be spent on construction and the funds come from the People’s Republic of China and the Cambodian government,” Mr. Iv Tek said at the ceremony.
The China Road and Bridge Corporation is overseeing the construction of the 275-meter-long bridge, for which a number of families living on the Chroy Changva peninsula had to be evicted or relocated.
These were acknowledged by the minister, who said he wanted to thank “people who were living close to the bridge and abandoned their properties” to ease its construction.
Workers in blue CRBC uniforms poured and flattened wet concrete over the final part of the bridge, bringing to an end a process that began about two-and-a-half years ago, when work began on the banks of the Tonle Sap river in two communes of Russei Keo district.
Construction worker Touch Nang said the connection of the two sides means the final phases of work can now begin.
“We have connected the final two meters of the concrete bridge today and we will start to pave the bridge after building the fences,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Lauren Crothers)
