Croatian Prime Minister Witnesses Closure of the Peljesac Bridge

Date: 08/02/2021

On the evening of July 28, local time, with the final section of CR8 steel box girder being lifted synchronously and accurately positioned, the whole bridge of Croatia's Peljesac Bridge Project was successfully closed. More than 600 people, including representatives of the government cabinet, owners, designers and supervisors, as well as Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic, and Minister of Marine, Infrastructure and Ministry of Oceanography, Alberto Butokovic, attended the closure ceremony and walked across the bridge.

In his speech, Plenkovic pointed out that the bridge carries the great expectations of the Croatian people to link the north and south of the country. The project team, relying on solid professional skills and multi-party friendly cooperation, completed the bridge main body construction with high-quality and efficiency. From then on, the north and south of Croatia, which had been separated for 300 years, completed as a whole. He was very excited to witness this historic moment with everyone, he thanked the project team for their hard work and looked forward to the completion and opening of the bridge as soon as possible.

Plenkovic told Xinhua reporters on the spot that the Peljesac Bridge is a remarkable achievement in terms of politics, economy, transportation, tourism and other aspects. It not only connects the north and south territories of Croatia, but also connects Croatia and China.

On the eve of the closure of the bridge, Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Xu Erwen hosted a video conference to celebrate the closure of the bridge, expressing greetings to all participants and congratulations on the closure of the bridge. The representatives of the owner and the supervision company highly appraised the project construction and the cooperation between both parties.

The Croatian state television, the European Union and other mainstream media broadcast live coverage of the bridge's closure. Local people watched the fireworks celebration and gave their best wishes.

The total length of the project is 3.94 kilometers, of which the bridge is 2,440 meters long and the main bridge is a steel box girder low-tower cable-stayed bridge with six towers and single cable plane. During the construction period, the project team overcame the pressure of the epidemic and ensured both epidemic prevention and production. It successively tackled a series of difficult problems including the construction of deep-water rock-socketed ultra-long-diameter steel pipe piles, the high-pile cap mass concrete pouring, the manufacturing and assembly construction of EXC4 grade steel box girders, the application of C70/85 high strength self-compacting concrete in cable-tower construction, the installation of superstructure of continuous multi-span cable-stayed bridge, and the control technology of closing precision, advancing the goal of each node with high quality and high standard. The major milestone of the closure of the entire bridge was achieved on schedule, and the goal of "zero safety accidents, zero quality defects, zero environmental pollution and zero epidemic prevention and infection" has been achieved since the start of construction.

The Peljesac Bridge Project in Croatia is the largest transportation infrastructure construction project undertaken by a Chinese enterprise since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Croatia, and is a key national livelihood project since the founding of Croatia. The completion of the bridge will realize the long-cherished wish of the Croatian people to link the north and south of the country, and effectively boost local economic development and personnel exchange.