After eight years of construction, the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh was completed and opened to traffic on June 25. China Railway Major Bridge Reconnaissance & Design Institute Co., Ltd. undertook the survey and design of the bridge, and China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group undertook construction with participation from China Railway Hi-Tech Industry Co., Ltd.

　　The Padma Bridge is the largest overseas single-bridge project won by a Chinese company, and construction of the bridge started in 2014. Crossing the Padma River, the multipurpose road-rail Padma Bridge is located about 40 kilometers southwest of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. With a length of 6.15 kilometers, the main bridge is a double-deck steel truss structure. The upper deck is a four-lane two-way road with the designed speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and the lower deck is a single-track rail with the designed speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The road on the upper deck was opened to traffic this time.

　　The main bridge is a steel truss structure spanning 150 meters. The full-span steel box girder of the bridge is an all-welded structure made of thick steel plates, and was hoisted into position as a whole. Weighing 3,200 tons, the structure is the world’s heaviest and longest full-span steel box girder. The China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group applied its independently-developed 3,600-ton-capacity Tianyi integrated beam carrier in the construction of the main bridge.

　　After opening to traffic, the bridge could connect Dhaka with 21 districts in the south of Bangladesh, ending the days when locals had to spend seven to eight hours to cross the Padma River by ferry. The Padma Bridge, by contrast, could help shorten the travel time to merely 10 minutes.