Rizzani de Eccher has been awarded a Euro 23 million contract for the construction of a bridge over river Pyandzh, on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan .
The project consists of the construction of a 10-span bridge with steel deck and concrete piles, with an overall length of 700 m, plus side and junction roads, connecting the Tajik side of the river Nidzhny Pyandzh with the Afghan side of Shar Khan Bandar, to be built on behalf of the US Army’s Corps of Engineers and paid with a loan from the US Treasury.
On completion, this bridge will represent the only road connection between the two countries, and will replace the existing barge system ferry, thus considerably reducing the border crossing time, and fostering trade, human and cultural relations between the two countries.
Construction work has already started and is scheduled for completion in May 2007. A lot of energy and resources must be directed to the realization of the project in order to meet this completion deadline, considering the particularly hard working conditions, the very long distance (materials must be transported for thousands of kilometres) and the presence of a powerful water flow that makes the erection of piles in the river bed very difficult.
