Recently, the concrete mixing plant in Baskun Village, Issyk Kul, made a loud roar as workers poured the last batch of concrete for the prefabricated bridge components of the Baskun Bader Highway. A few months ago, this cross-border highway with a total length of 161 kilometers had just completed a geological survey of the entire line, and two tunnels with a total length of over 9 kilometers had entered the stage of excavation at the entrance.

Double tunnels run through the hinterland of Tianshan Mountains

The project includes two key tunnels - the first Sook tunnel is 5340 meters long and the second Ashuu Suu tunnel is 3788 meters long, crossing the complex geological zone of the Tianshan Mountains. More than 50 bridges will be erected along the entire line, and the bridge construction is currently in the stage of pile foundation preparation. Temporary facilities such as concrete plants and quarries have been built and put into operation, and 557 employees on site are simultaneously promoting the construction of roadbeds and structures. The project is undertaken by the Chinese side and is a leading contracted project in the field of practical cooperation between China and Kyrgyzstan since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The 100 kilometer corridor connects the China Kyrgyzstan border

The highway starts from Balskoun Village in Issyk Kul and ends at the Zhongjibeidel Border Port in the west. After completion, it will effectively alleviate the traffic pressure at the existing port and shorten the cross-border transportation time of goods. Jifang regards it as a key project to improve the national transportation infrastructure, with a total investment of about 350 million US dollars and a construction period of about five years. With the acceleration of regional connectivity projects such as the China Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Railway, this highway will complement the railway network and help Kyrgyzstan upgrade from an inland transit country to a regional logistics hub. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, highway infrastructure

Construction of over 500 people to drive local employment

The construction site has absorbed 557 employees, including a large number of local technical workers and laborers, and will continue to expand the number of professional personnel in the future. The project construction synchronously drives the upstream and downstream industries such as building materials supply and logistics transportation, and the service industries such as catering and accommodation in the villages and towns along the route also benefit from it. When the tunnel boring machine works day and night deep in the Tianshan Mountains, this cross-border highway is compressing the geographical distance between the two countries into a mutually beneficial economic corridor.Editor/Gao Xue