On the evening of July 26 local time, the opening ceremony of Peljesac Bridge in Croatia, which was built with the participation from CRHIC, was held in Komarna. Chinese Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang attended the ceremony by video and delivered a speech. Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Speaker of the Parliament Gordan Jandrokovic, and thousands of Croatian people of all circles were present at the event. Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Qi Qianjin was also present by invitation.
Peljesac Bridge is a cable-stayed road bridge measuring 2,440m long and 22.5m wide. It crosses Ston Bay in the Adriatic Sea in southern Croatia and connects the mainland of the country with Peljesac peninsula. This is the first time that a Chinese company has won the bid for an EU-funded project, and this bridge is also the largest single EU-funded project undertaken by a Chinese company. It sets a model for tripartite cooperation among China, Croatia and Europe.
China Railway Baoji Bridge Group Co., Ltd. affiliated to CRHIC produced 18,000 tons of steel for the bridge. The project observed the strictest manufacturing level EXC4 as stated in the European standard EN1090-2. This is the first try of Chinese enterprises to manufacture steel box girders of such level. Since the official launch of the project in April 2019, the project team from China Railway Baoji Bridge Group Co., Ltd. has tried their best to handle safety and quality issues against challenges, pandemic risks and huge pressure, and successfully completed the production and construction tasks.
As the Peljesac Bridge which crosses Ston Bay in the Adriatic Sea and connects the Croatian territory across the sea opens to traffic, the travel time in the area will be greatly reduced.