Local residents of Blagoveshchensk, Russia enjoy the view of Heilongjiang River (or Amur River in Russia), a boundary river between China and Russia.

The government of Heilongjiang province in northeastern China has confirmed that construction on a cross-border highway bridge linking the city of Heihe and Blagoveshchensk, Russia is expected to start on Dec. 24 after nearly 28 years' discussion from both sides.

The 19.9-kilometer bridge will be the first cross-border bridge over the boundary river that separates the countries, the Heilongjiang River (or Amur River), with 6.5 kilometers in China and 13.4 kilometers in Russia.

With investment of nearly 2.5 billion yuan, the project is expected to be completed in three years and will be officially open to traffic in October, 2019.

The notion of building the bridge was first put forward by both countries in 1988. However, establishment of a construction fund proved to be a significant obstacle and prevented the project moving forward.

In a bid to tackle the problem, Heilongjiang government in 2013 proposed to establish a joint venture company between the two countries to attract loans and then pay back the loans using bridge tolls.

In September 2015, a protocol on building the bridge was signed between China and Russia and one year later the Heilongjiang government in China and the Amur state government in Russia inked a contract with the China-Russia joint venture Company. According to the contract, the company will be responsible for construction management, operation and maintenance of the bridge as well as charging fees and returning loans.

Trips across the two sides are expected to be doubled to nearly 1.5 million in 2020 and freight volume is also expected to increase 10-fold, reaching over 3 million tons.