Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Going on holiday? Just returned with pictures or news? Found an interesting website? Post everything international in here.

Moderator: Site Management Team

Post Reply
User avatar
IAN
Member
Posts: 1494
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2001 19:07

Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by IAN »

This is interesting, I'd not heard of it before. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-61767303

Not many details though - like where is it? Can it be viewed on Google Earth or Maps?
AKA M5 Driver
WHBM
Member
Posts: 9707
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 18:01
Location: London

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by WHBM »

It's here, at Blagoveshchensk, Asian Russia, across the Amur River.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Blago ... 27.5356153

The Amur forms the border between the two for hundreds of miles. The Trans-Siberian Railway follows the Russian side along the outside of the long curved border.
User avatar
FosseWay
Assistant Site Manager
Posts: 19621
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 22:26
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by FosseWay »

The toll is £122 :shock:

That is a lot. Compare the walk-up Öresund bridge/tunnel charge of €65 (although if you are going to make more than one passage it's always cheaper to buy the Bropass for €40 and then get half-price passages).
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!
User avatar
jervi
Member
Posts: 1596
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 16:29
Location: West Sussex

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by jervi »

That toll though! When adjusted for average wage, that's nearly £500. I can't expect demand to be all that high, except for goods traffic. On the CCP's China side I guess there is a fairly decent network of expressways which can reliably get to the bridge (almost all of which would be tolled), but then on the Russian side its just S2 for thousands of miles on end.

The bridge is only S2, which makes sense for the amount of traffic which would ever possibly use it.

What I do find amusing is the S8+D2 on the CCP's side, how on earth is that a good, or even adequate design? Also with a random 32metre long signalised pedestrian crossing (for main carriageway). and then at the crossroads the pedestrian crossings are 58 metres long (63m on the western end).
That whole junction of the western end is a complete joke.
User avatar
RJDG14
Member
Posts: 8869
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 15:47
Location: Swindon
Contact:

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by RJDG14 »

I'm aware that there's a high quality suspension bridge linking China and North Korea which to the best of my knowledge still leads nowhere since the North Korean link road is still unfinished (or was as of 2021, though it was clearly under construction). Given that North Korea has completely closed its border due to Covid, I can't see it coming into use anytime soon. I think China built it in the hope that it would improve North Korea's infrastructure and attract investment in the region, but I don't think they funded the link road to the bridge on the North Korean side, and given that North Korea is infamous for having poor resources, that was likely going to mean that it was going to lead nowhere for at least a few years until North Korea could scrape together funds for the link road.

Given how closed the North Korean border is, I'm surprised that the 2021 satellite imagery shows no trace of any border checkpoint being built where the bridge to China is.
RJDG14

See my Geograph profile here - http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/74193
The Swindon Files - Swindon's modern history - http://rjdg14.altervista.org/swindon/

----
If I break a policy designed only to protect me and nobody else, have I really broken anything?
User avatar
A303Chris
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 3587
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2004 14:01
Location: Reading

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by A303Chris »

And people thought the Skye Bridge toll was high when it was £5.70 each way!!!
The M25 - The road to nowhere
jnty
Member
Posts: 1727
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2021 00:12

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by jnty »

jervi wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 15:58 That toll though! When adjusted for average wage, that's nearly £500. I can't expect demand to be all that high, except for goods traffic. On the CCP's China side I guess there is a fairly decent network of expressways which can reliably get to the bridge (almost all of which would be tolled), but then on the Russian side its just S2 for thousands of miles on end.

The bridge is only S2, which makes sense for the amount of traffic which would ever possibly use it.

What I do find amusing is the S8+D2 on the CCP's side, how on earth is that a good, or even adequate design? Also with a random 32metre long signalised pedestrian crossing (for main carriageway). and then at the crossroads the pedestrian crossings are 58 metres long (63m on the western end).
That whole junction of the western end is a complete joke.
Quite bizarre. There seems to be some sort of compound at the Chinese end of the bridge - I wonder if there's an expectation that the traffic may be extremely peaky or subject to large delays? Sort of like Operation Stack in the UK. You can imagine that when trucking over such long distances it may be reasonable to simply wait out bridge closures for many hours rather than trying to divert. Doesn't explain why it's like that going away from the bridge though there does appear to be some kind of compound before the bridge itself - could this generate large amounts of traffic at once perhaps, say if trucks are permitted to stay there overnight and all leave at the same time?

Google Maps link for others' context: https://goo.gl/maps/bDNFikwK5Cic9sDM6
WHBM
Member
Posts: 9707
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 18:01
Location: London

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by WHBM »

At a macro scale, the bridge does appear to be in an unexpected position, and the wrong orientation, for a link between the road systems of the two countries, or even between the two otherwise quite isolated cities which face one another. The Russian Trans-Siberian Highway was finally fully paved about 7 years ago, and runs through all the major cities of the Russian Far East - except Blagoveshchensk, which it passes a considerable distance to the north of. The city also has substantial snow between October and April, so one wonders how practical road travel actually is; the river also freezes over in this time, and in winter cars used to drive across on the ice.
scott125
Member
Posts: 346
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 14:50

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by scott125 »

Is there much traffic that crosses into China from Russia and vice versa. I thought China didn't allow foreign vehicles to drive on there roads.
User avatar
RJDG14
Member
Posts: 8869
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 15:47
Location: Swindon
Contact:

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by RJDG14 »

I can't seem to see any bridge there on Google Maps.

I know that China built a high quality D2 cable stayed (from the look of it) bridge at Dandong linking it to North Korea a few years ago, yet it's still closed and I think the DPRK are only just getting around to building the approach road on their side, based on recent satellite images. Most major North Korean roads have practically no traffic aside from the odd official vehicle and a few horse carts, and the surface in most cases looks very poorly kept from the photos and satellite images I've seen. I don't really get why the bridge was built to such a high standard when North Korea doesn't get a great deal of traffic from the outside world, and ordinary North Koreans are unable to leave. Since the start of the pandemic I believe it's been more or less completely sealed off.
RJDG14

See my Geograph profile here - http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/74193
The Swindon Files - Swindon's modern history - http://rjdg14.altervista.org/swindon/

----
If I break a policy designed only to protect me and nobody else, have I really broken anything?
User avatar
RichardA626
Member
Posts: 7809
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 22:19
Location: Stockport
Contact:

Re: Bridge Between China and Russia Opens.

Post by RichardA626 »

scott125 wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 19:11 Is there much traffic that crosses into China from Russia and vice versa. I thought China didn't allow foreign vehicles to drive on there roads.
Even pre-handover vehicles from Hong Kong could cross over into China, though regulars had to display 2 sets of number plates. I think the same applies to Macao.
Beware of the trickster on the roof
Post Reply