Neak Loeung Bridge to Open Early April 2015

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 3629 Views

Once it is opened to traffic in early April 2015, the new Neak Loeung Bridge will be Cambodia’s first cable-stayed bridge. It will also be the nation’s biggest and longest bridge and one of the finest modern bridges in the region.

By the end of 2014, the construction of Neak Loeung Bridge was about 93.5 percent complete. Construction will be fully complete by mid-March and is scheduled to be inaugurated in the first week of April 2015 by the Cambodian Prime Minister and Japanese vice-Foreign Minister. The opening has been timed to ease travel times during Khmer New Year in the second week of April, according to officials from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Cambodian government.

Prime Minister Hun Sen will preside over the bridge connecting ceremony on the bridge on January 14.

“The rest of works are mostly pavement works, electrical facilities works, embankment protection works for approach roads, and drainage and sidewalks. It is scheduled to be opened in early April before Khmer New Year,” said Daisuke Fukuzawa, JICA’s Representative for Land Transport Sector.

Located at Neak Leoung town in Prey Veng province, about 60 kilometers southeast of Phnom Penh along National Road No. 1 to Vietnam, Neak Loeung Bridge is built across the Lower Mekong River and connects the eastern part of Kandal province to the western part of Prey Veng province. It is 13.5 meters wide, 2,215 meters long, and 37.5 meters above the water level during the rainy season to allow bigger ships to pass underneath. The road will eventually become part of ASEAN Highway-1.

Construction commenced in February 2011, and has taken 51 months. While Sumitomo Mitsu Construction Co., LTD (SMC), a leading Japanese contractor, is the project’s main contractor, the consortium of Chodai Co., Ltd and Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd are the project consultants. The total construction cost 11.94 billion JPY (EN/GA amount) or about US$130 million (based on the exchange rate in June 2010). Construction has been funded under grant aid from the Japanese government.

738 staff have worked to bring the bridge to reality; 9 Japanese managers, 57 Cambodian staff, 647 Cambodian workers, and 25 third country staff.

Speaking at a media tour to the bridge on 26 December, Mr. Chhim Phalla, Director of International Cooperation Department, at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said the bridge has used Japanese standards, is designed to last up to 100 years, and can bear transport loads from 25 tons up to 43 tons.

To allow ships to cross below the bridge easily, the main structure uses 160 cables to enlarge the bridge’s span from a normal length of around 220 meters (without using columns) to 330 meters (with cable assistance), according to Phalla.

Phalla explained that the bridge width of 13.5 meters is based on the calculation of estimated traffic volume from 2015 to 2020 that it will be able to handle. “We haven’t projected up to 2050 or longer. If the traffic volume increases greater than the bridge capacity by that time, we will consider building another parallel bridge.”

After construction on Neak Loeung Bridge began, a study financed by JICA was launched in mid- 2014 looked at constructing an expressway linking Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City by crossing Bavet City. This plan will include the construction of another bridge across the Mekong River, according to Fukuzawa of the JICA Cambodia Office.

“After the bridge is operating, the lives of the people will change and traffic volume will increase rapidly. In order to accommodate that traffic, we are now starting to think about the expressway from Phnom Penh to Bavet,” he said.

It should be noted that the Neak Loeung Bridge project was proposed because the traffic volume across the Neak Loeung ferry had already exceeded its capacity in 2009. Once the bridge is opened, the land where the Neak Loeung ferry is located will be developed into a Japanese-dominated special economic zone.

“The bridge will potentially contribute to the development of Cambodian and regional economies because it will link the ASEAN Highway and the Great Mekong Sub-region Highway, said Prime Minister Hun Sen at the bridge ground-breaking ceremony in 2011. “The bridge will also respond in a timely way to the implementation of the bilateral transport agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam.”

Japan has so far financed a number of bridge constructions in Cambodia, including the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge, known as Chroy Changvar Bridge, in Phnom Penh and the Kizuna Bridge in Kampong Cham province.

According to figures from the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance, Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Cambodia for socio-economic development is about US$130 million a year.