Presidents of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan open new railway and road bridges Turkmenabat-Farab

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev cut symbolical ribbon and opened new railway bridge Turkmenabat – Farab across Amudarya River.

On occasion of this momentous event, large celebration with participation of Turkmen and Uzbek stage masters was organized as well as exhibitions introducing decorative and applied arts of two nations were expanded.

New 1750-meters railway bridge is built with application of new technologies. High seismic and exploitation resistant constructions, designed for super heavy trains, were used. Navigation channel under the bridges is 60 meters wide and 10 meters height.

Superstructure of the bridge rests on 18 ferroconcrete piers. 1.5 meters in diameter reinforced concrete piles equally distribute the load on the piers driven into the bottom for 40 meters. For wear protection of the piles by the stream and debris, they are wrapped in acrylic glass tubing. Both banks of the river around the bridge were reinforced.

Before, railway traffic across the Amudarya was carried out by old bridge built in 1901 but the last inspection revealed that that capacity of number of elements of the construction is considerably reduced. In this regards, by the Resolution of President Berdimuhamedov from February, 2013, it was decided to build new railway bridge. The Ministry of Railroad Transport of Turkmenistan was the customer and ALTCOM Road Construction LTD was the general contractor of the project.

Climate, soil, engineering, geological, hydrological and tectonic conditions of the area as well as temperature changes were taken into consideration during construction of the facility. New bridge has large geopolitical, economic and social importance for Lebap Velayat, Turkmenistan itself and neighbouring countries in general.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived to the right bank of the Amudarya River across the new railway bridge. The cortege of the leaders of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan run along the highway laid between the two bridges.

The leaders of the two states together with other participants of the festive ceremony took a tour along the new bridge across the Amudarya River. Numerous musicians of Lebap Velayat, dancing and folklore groups of our country and Uzbekistan greeted the guests on the bridge. More than a thousand of people performed a grandiose show.

Complex of scientific and survey, geophysical, geological, engineering, construction and installation works was carried out in the framework of the bridge construction project. According to the bored technology, 17 powerful supporting structures made of high-quality concrete and armature were installed. The solid foundations for multi-ton steel bridge structures were built on the supporting structures. Glass-polyester pipes cover the structures to prevent them from wearout.

The four-lane roadway of the bridge is 21.5 metres in width. 6-kilometre ramps were installed at the entrances to the bridge to ensure the safe traffic. There are pedestrian walkways 1.5 metres in width on the both sides of the bridge. The bridge is covered with a state-of-the-art high-strength, durable, UV-resistant and at the same time thin-layered and light polymer material.

On the other side of the river, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev watched over the traffic on the bridges. The train from Uzbekistan run along one of the bridges, and a string of Uzbek trucks loaded with Turkmen carbamide, textiles and other products stretched on another bridge.