China-built Peljesac Bridge to open for traffic on July 26

ZAGREB, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The Croatian government announced on Thursday that the Peljesac Bridge, a key infrastructure project in Croatia, will be open for traffic on July 26.

It "is a great event for Croatia" and everyone will be invited to the opening ceremony, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plekovic said at a government session.

The bridge connects the Croatian mainland with the Peljesac Peninsula of its southernmost Dubrovnik-Neretva County, bypassing a short strip of land belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and giving Croatia its long-awaited territorial integrity and better access to the area.

The 2.4-kilometer-long bridge, along with access roads, cost 525 million euros, of which 357 million are grants from European Union funds, Plekovic said.

Croatian Minister of Transport Oleg Butkovic said the Peljesac Bridge is the biggest bridge in Croatia and "one of the most significant European architectural achievements of our time."

The opening of the bridge means a better accessibility for Dubrovnik and more tourism in Peljesac, Korcula and in southern Croatia at large, he said.

A Chinese consortium led by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) won the bid to build the Peljesac Bridge and its access roads in 2018. Construction of the bridge started in July 2018 and was completed on time.