5th Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge 80 percent complete, set to open next year

Construction work on the fifth Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge across the Mekong River is now 80 percent complete and is expected to open to the public sometime next year, Thai media reported.
The remaining work on the bridge, which links Thailand’s Bueng Kan province to Laos’ central province of Khammuan, will be finalised in 2024, the Bangkok Post quoted Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Transport Manaporn Charoensri as saying.
The new bridge will ease the movement of goods, people and services and increase the value of trade between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam from “billions of baht to tens of billions of baht”, Ms Manaporn said following an inspection of the bridge on Monday.
The bridge, together with its access roads, spans 16.18 kilometres, 12.13km of which are in Thailand and the rest in Laos. The bridge is a part of a new transport route passing through Nong Khai, Bueng Kan, Nakhon Phanom and Sakhon Nakhon provinces.
When the bridge opens, many more vehicles will use this route so the existing single-carriageway approaches will have to be upgraded and turned into a dual carriageway, the report stated.
Plans to build the bridge were first drawn up in 2014, when a survey was carried out. The design of the structure was approved by the Lao and Thai governments in 2018 and construction began in January 2021.
The Lao government secured a loan of 1.38 billion baht from Thailand’s Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA) to build the Lao side of the bridge, while Thailand is responsible for construction on its side.
The Lao component of the project comprises construction of the bridge on the Lao side, the construction of access roads, immigration and customs buildings, and other structures.
Four existing bridges link Laos and Thailand across the Mekong River. The first was built to connect Vientiane and Nong Khai, the second connects Savannakhet and Mukdahan provinces, the third links Khammuan and Nakhon Phanom provinces, and the fourth connects Huayxai and Chiang Khong.

By Times Reporters
 (Latest Update November 29, 2023)