The Closure of Main Span of Zemun-Borca Bridge in Serbia is Successfully Realized

At 00:35 of January 22, along with the casting of the last cubic meter’s concrete, the closure of main span of Zemun-Borca Bridge was realized; and the common expectation of China and Serbia that a “China Bridge” crossing the Danube made the residents at both banks of Belgrade visit each other directly was to come true. Chinese constructors expressed their joy with gorgeous firework and people of Serbia also spontaneously went to see the last closure at a distance at the dams of both banks and also enjoyed the fireworks and shared their joys.

On the morning of January 22, Tomislv Nikolic - President of Serbia accepted an exclusive interview of CCTV on the theme of Significance of Closure of Zemun-Borca Bridge in the Friendship between China and Serbia and Deepening the Cooperation with Serbia at the presidential palace. At 13:00 of that afternoon, President Nikolic, in the company of Minister of Transport of Serbia, acting mayor of Belgrade and Chinese ambassador to Serbia Zhang Wanxue, visited the Bridge at the site.

President Nikolic delivered a speech to over 30 Chinese and Serbian media at the site. He stated that he had experienced the construction of four bridges in his career life and that Zemun-Borca Bridge was the bridge that satisfied him most. He expressed congratulation on the successful closure of main span of the Bridge and expressed thanks to the construction team composed of Chinese and Serbian engineering technicians for their hard work and outstanding technical performance; besides, he said that Zemun-Borca Bridge was a model of the friendship between China and Serbia and the cooperation between China and Europe and hoped that the Bridge could be completed ahead of schedule at the end of this year. After that, in the speech, Antic – Minister of Transport of Serbia, stressed that Zemun-Borca Bridge was of great significance to relieve traffic pressure in North Belgrade.

In his speech at the site, Chinese ambassador to Serbia Zhang Wanxue mentioned that as the first large-scale infrastructure project under the cooperation between China and Serbia, Zemun-Borca Bridge had a demonstration and driving effect beyond the expectation. When President Nikolic visited China in 2013 and Prime Minister of China and Prime Minister of Serbia attended 2013 EU-China Summit, they mentioned this project for many times and said they were willing to continuously deepen and strengthen the bilateral cooperation.

After the bridge closure ceremony, ambassador Zhang Wanxue and counselor Zhu Lianqi went to the project department and conveyed wishes to the staff of the project department and wished them a happy New Year.

Zemun-Borca Bridge is located at Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The bridge adopts concrete continuous beam structure; the 172m-long main span ranks 9th among the bridges of the same type in the world. It is the first bridge project that Chinese building enterprises undertook in Europe and also the first construction project that used Chinese government concessional loan in Europe. The completion of both its design and construction were dominated by Chinese enterprises and some Chinese standards were adopted based on the codes and standards of Serbia and EU. The successful closure of the main span means that the objective of fully completing Zemun-Borca Bridge at the end of 2014 can be realized; and then this bridge will be the first large engineering project that is completed as scheduled in Serbia in the past 20 years. When the Bridge is completed, the travel distance and time between Zemun and Borca in Belgrade will be shortened by 70% and the dream of residents at both banks crossing the river directly will come true.