Shortening the Distance and Boosting the Economy - Chinese Enterprises Undertake the Construction of the Pereshaz Bridge in Croatia for the First Anniversary of Its Opening, Highlighting the Livelihood Benefits of China | Bridge | Shaz
Komarna, Croatia, July 26 (Xinhua) - Shortening the Distance and Boosting the Economy - Chinese Enterprises Undertaking the Construction of the Pereshaz Bridge in Croatia for the First Anniversary of Its Opening, Highlighting Livelihood Benefits
Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xuejun
The Pereshaz Bridge in Croatia, built by a Chinese enterprise consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation, celebrated its first anniversary of opening on the 26th. Over the past year, the bridge has greatly shortened travel time to southern Croatia, promoting the development of local tourism, transportation, logistics and other industries, and bringing tangible benefits to the local people.
"Thank you to the Chinese builders for building us the beautiful and spectacular Perez Bridge, which provided me and my colleagues with the opportunity to work on the bridge project," said diver Niksha Kaleb in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency.
This is a fireworks display taken at the opening ceremony of the Pereshaz Bridge in Komarna, Croatia.
Kaleb was a former Croatian male handball player who won the championship at the 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Athens Olympics for the Croatian national team. Due to his passion for diving, after retiring, he transformed into a professional diver and opened a professional diving company. In 2018, after the construction of the Pereshaz Bridge project, Kaleb's company participated in underwater piling, pipeline laying, and other work. During this time, he worked side by side with his Chinese colleagues and formed a deep friendship.
Kaleb said that the Pereshaz Bridge is a model of cooperation between Croatia and China, providing sustained employment opportunities for local people. Although the Pereshaz Bridge has been opened to traffic, Kaleb's work on the bridge project is still ongoing: due to the ten-year maintenance period of the bridge, they still need to dive in the surrounding waters every day, responsible for underwater facility maintenance, and so on.
Local resident Stipe Capo told reporters that after the bridge was opened last year, it became a tourist attraction, bringing a continuous source of customers to the local homestay industry. When he promotes his rented apartment on social media, he always specifically mentions "adjacent to the Perez Bridge" because it makes his apartment more attractive.
The Mayor of Stone City, Vedlan Antunica, who oversees the Pereshats Bridge, told reporters that the bridge has become a local landmark and has also doubled the number of tourists in the surrounding areas of Stone City, Dubrovnik, and Korchula, greatly promoting the local tourism economy. In addition, the opening of the bridge eliminates the need for logistics drivers to detour through the "Neium Corridor" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, eliminating cumbersome entry and exit procedures and greatly reducing travel time. The original 2-3 hour drive now only takes 20 to 30 minutes.
"I want to thank the Chinese builders," he said.
On July 27, 2022, vehicles were driving on the Pereshac Bridge in Komarna, Croatia.
Zhang Fei, the person in charge of the Pereshaz Bridge project, told reporters that the bridge project employs more than 250 local employees and has trained many engineering, technical, and management talents for Croatia. At the same time, 18 design consulting companies from the European Union, 45 construction enterprises, and 112 global equipment and material suppliers from Croatia, Germany, Poland, and other countries have participated in it, truly achieving cooperation, mutual benefit, and win-win.
Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Qi Qianjin told reporters that over 2.1 million cars have safely passed through the Pereshaz Bridge since its opening one year ago, greatly promoting local economic development and improving people's lives. It is hoped that the tenth anniversary of the "the Belt and Road" initiative will serve as an opportunity for China and Croatia to promote cooperation in key projects such as infrastructure and clean energy, build more bridges of friendship, people's livelihood and cooperation like the Peleshatz Bridge, and write a new chapter of China Croatia comprehensive cooperative partnership.
The Pereshaz Bridge is a 2440 meter long and 22.5 meter wide cable-stayed highway bridge that spans the Little Stone Bay in the southern Adriatic Sea of Croatia, connecting the country's mainland with the Pereshaz Peninsula. The bridge project is the first time a Chinese enterprise has won the bid for an EU fund project, and it is also the largest single project funded by the EU fund undertaken by a Chinese enterprise.
